


The Spectacular Dancing Spider Pt. III

by WolfMeister



Series: Spectacular Dancing Spider [3]
Category: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: Angst, Clone Saga, Clones, F/F, F/M, Fights, Identity Reveal, Love Confessions, M/M, Manipulation, Name Changes, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, San Francisco, Spidersona, Terminal Illnesses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-01-21 11:54:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 20,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21299030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfMeister/pseuds/WolfMeister
Relationships: Flash Thompson/Original Female Character(s), Harry Osborn/Peter Benjamin Parker, Jazzy Joyce/Anguish, Jazzy Joyce/Flash Thompson, Peter Benjamin Parker/Mary Jane Watson
Series: Spectacular Dancing Spider [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1517249
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

“Why’d you contact me?” Jazzy asks Mysterio once she finds him sitting in the dark and messing with his helmet. “How did you contact me? I don’t understand.”

“Your spider sense has a unique frequency, different from Spider-Man’s. It was just a matter of figuring out how to communicate with yours,” Quentin explains, not looking up. “I called you to tell you that there are other spiders looking for you. I’ve seen at least two.”

“Others? Why are they looking for me?”

Quentin looks up. “Electro told them to.”

“How do you know that?” Jazzy wonders, eyes narrowing.

“I have eyes and ears around to keep me informed without risking showing myself. I figured I would put some among the Children of Electro, as they seem to give you plenty of trouble. It is always a good idea to know what your enemies are up to.”

Jazzy blinks. “Thank you.”

He smiles. “You’re welcome.”

Jazzy heads over to Mysterio as he sets his helmet on the desk behind him. She grabs a second chair and sits down, kicking her feet up onto the desk and angling her head toward Quentin. “Do you know who Spider-Man is?”

“I do, do you want to know?” he replies.

“Yeah, tell me.”

**‘You already know, Jazzy.’**

_I want to see if he’s telling the truth._

“Kid named Peter Parker from Queens, New York. Not well known, doesn’t have many friends, keeps to himself mostly. Smart kid.”

**‘Well, he’s telling the truth.’**

Jazzy smirks and crosses her arms. “I already knew that,” Jazzy tells him. “I just wanted to see if you really did.”

“Glad I passed your test,” Quentin laughs. “You still don’t trust me.”

“No, I don’t, and I doubt you trust me.”

Mysterio nods. “So, what are you going to do about those spiders chasing you?”

“I could just let them find me,” Jazzy suggests. “I’ll be ready, and I doubt they’re strong enough to take me on, or you could help me find them.”

“It would be my pleasure.” He leans forward, arms resting on his knees. “The two that I have seen, one is badly scarred, brown hair, he can’t easily hide. The other, she can. Again, brown hair, no distinguishing physical qualities. They both share a rather striking resemblance to Parker. They might be related, Spider-Man might be working with Electro. Any reason why he would want to kill you?”

“Not that I--”

**‘Me, Jazzy.’**

Jazzy widens her eyes. “My partner,” she says slowly. “He doesn’t like her, thinks she isn’t an intelligent being. Tried to kill her father.”

“Your partner? Didn’t realize you have one.”

“Didn’t tell you because I don’t trust you, but now…” Jazzy trails off. “She’s not human.”

Mysterio hums. “Why go after you to get to her?”

“We share a body,” Jazzy explains. “I die, she dies, and vice versa. I don’t know if he realizes that.”

“Maybe he does,” Quentin says, “and he just doesn’t care.” He leans back. “I could help you find them, maybe lure them here the same way I contacted you.”

“Why help me though? What do I have to offer?”

“You have potential, you were willing to listen,” Quentin tells her. He turns his chair to face his desk, opening a sleek laptop hooked up to a faintly glowing green and purple device like a miniature cell tower. “This is what I used to contact you.”

“I have the potential to do what?”

Quentin turns to her and grins. “Change the world with me.” They stare at each other for a moment. “What’s your name?”

“I don’t know if I want to tell you,” Jazzy replies.

“Alright, what’s your partner’s name?”

**‘You can tell him, I don’t know why you keep it a secret anyway.’**

“Anguish,” Jazzy states. “We protect each other.” Her symbiote manifests from Jazzy’s lower back, snaking around and resting her head on Jazzy’s shoulder.

“Hi Mysterio,” Anguish greets.

“Nice to meet you, Anguish,” Quentin replies. “What are you?”

**“A symbiote,”** Anguish replies. **“What are you?”** Jazzy chuckles.

“An honest man.” Quentin turns his focus back on Jazzy. “You could at least take your mask off, or would I be able to figure out your identity if you did?”

“You probably would be able to because you’re you.” Jazzy sighs and pushes her hood back. “What do you think I should do, Guish?”

**“I think there’s no harm in it.”**

“You’re smart, Anguish, I like you already,” Quentin tells the symbiote. Jazzy feels her purr. “I won’t push you to tell me anything you don’t want to, Dancing Spider.”

“I know,” Jazzy replies. She closes her eyes and lowers her head. Jazzy removes her mask and looks back up at Quentin. “I want you to figure out my name.”

“I accept your challenge.” Quentin leans forward and tucks a strand of hair behind Jazzy’s ear. “I don’t understand why you would hide your face. There’s no reason to hide from the world, either of you.”

“There is. If the wrong people find out about Anguish, they’ll try to take her from me and then experiment on her,” Jazzy explains. “And I would really rather not deal with people attacking me out of suit.”

“There’s a reason I’m trying to change the world,” he responds. “I’ll make it better for all of us.” He turns back to his laptop. “I’ll contact you again when I find them.”

“How can I contact you?” Jazzy asks, putting her mask back on. “I feel like this should be a two way street, type thing.”

Quentin rummages through one of the desk drawers before handing Jazzy a small cube with a button on one side. It’s gold with strange markings etched into it. “Press the button and I will find you. Just don’t push it around too many people.”

“Thank you, Mysterio, I hope you find them soon.”


	2. Chapter 2

“I should’ve talked to you about Jenny,” Chey tells Jazzy over the weekend. “Shit, I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“You were thinking that you wanted to fill the hole,” Jazzy states, leaning against her bed. “I know, I want to, too.”

“I didn’t even know her that long, I can’t imagine what this is like for you.”

Jazzy shrugs. “I try not to think about it, distract myself by fighting crime and news things.”

“And what about Wolff? Sounded like you ran into him a couple of times.”

“I did, and the next time I do, I’m going to kill him.”

“You kill people.”

“Yes, I kill people,” Jazzy replies. “Not often, but I do. Never anyone like Jenny, never anyone innocent, only people like Wolff.”

“I want to help you,” Chey states. “I really want to help you, but I don’t have any powers or anything.”

Jazzy hums and crosses her arms. “You know tech shit and things right? I don’t know tech things, could use help with that.”

Chey grins. “Yeah, that sounds great! I’ll set things up, find a way for us to keep in contact, but secure and encrypted line, you tell me what you need to know and I’ll figure it out as quick as I can, that sound good?”

“Yeah, absolutely.”


	3. Chapter 3

**‘Staying in bed today?’** Anguish’s sleepy voice sounds in Jazzy’s ears the next morning. **‘I’ll get food from the fridge.’**

“Yeah, thanks, Anguish,” Jazzy mutters, curling deeper into her blankets and shivering against the cold near-winter air. Jazzy pushes her feelings of gratitude toward her symbiote, having grown much more accustomed to the sharing of their emotions over the past several months. Anguish hums as she stretches a tendril out and opens the mini fridge shoved in the corner of Jazzy’s room. A block of cheese makes its way back to her bed.

**‘Do you want to eat it or can I?’**

“Go ahead.”

Anguish’s head peeks out over the covers before hastily chewing down the smoked gouda. The symbiote shares the taste and Jazzy’s lips curl upward. Anguish wraps around Jazzy’s stomach as she finishes off her breakfast, satisfaction washing through their bond.

**“Thank you, Jazzy.”**

“It’s no problem,” Jazzy mumbles, turning her head to look at Anguish staring down at her. “You die, I die, right?” Her own words send a pleasant warmth through her.

**“Yes, right,”** Anguish responds slowly. Her black lips close around her teeth, curling downward into a thoughtful expression.

“What’s on your mind?”

**“I don’t want to leave you.”**

“You don’t have to,” Jazzy replies. “Right?” She rolls onto her back and reaches up to touch Anguish’s face. “I don’t want you to go.”

**“I won’t leave,”** Anguish reassures. The symbiote projects her emotions through their bond. A rush of heartache and warmth and longing hit Jazzy hard. Tears prick at her eyes as she almost becomes overwhelmed.

“Anguish…” Jazzy says, the pain in her heart increasing. “How long have you been hiding this from me?”

**“I think you know,”** Anguish replies, voice sounding small and timid. **“You don’t feel the same.”**

She bites her lip. “That’s not true,” Jazzy whispers, words hanging in the air and the space between them. Hope seeps into Anguish’s near despair. “That’s not true, Guish.”

**“Don’t trick me.”**

“Have I ever?” Jazzy responds. She pushes against her symbiote’s wave of longing with her own of love. “I want to give you everything, but I was scared.”

Anguish presses her forehead against Jazzy’s. **“Scared?”**

“I can’t lose who I love again.” Jazzy frowns. “We gotta tell Flash.”

**“Why?”**

“Because he’s my boyfriend and if I don’t tell him then that counts as cheating, and I’m not a cheater,” Jazzy explains. She grabs her phone from beside her pillow. “Hey Flash,” she greets into the receiver.

“Hey Jazzy, what’s up?” Flash’s voice sounds.

“So,” Jazzy replies, “if Anguish and I started dating, or whatever the symbiote-host equivalent is, would you be okay with that?”

“Weren’t you already together?” Flash asks. Anguish chuckles, curling around Jazzy’s shoulders.

“Um, no, we weren’t, did you think that?”

“I really did,” Flash laughs. “So yeah, totally cool with it.”

**“That’s good, because I feel like a body buddy would come before a boyfriend.”** Jazzy snorts. **“Just saying.”**

“Well, you’re right, Guish.”

**“Good.”**

“You’re sure you’re okay with this?” Jazzy asks Flash. “Because like, think about it, technically you’re kinda dating her too.”

“Yeah, I’m sure, Jazzy. Don’t stress it. Oh, are you coming over for winter break? Harry said he’s going back to San Fran, so I wasn’t sure what your plans would be.”

“Harry’s coming back here? Man, he didn’t tell me that,” Jazzy mumbles. “I don’t know, I’ll probably spend half the time here, half the time there. I promise I’ll come visit though.”


	4. Chapter 4

_“I found one, he’s coming here,”_ Mysterio’s voice resonates in Jazzy’s mind. She perks up and looks around the classroom and down at her backpack. _“Get here before he does.”_

**‘You gonna ditch class, Jazzy?’**

“Yeah,” she whispers back. Jazzy grabs her bag, slinging it over her shoulder and slipping out of the room. She stops by her dorm before following Quentin’s signal.

Jazzy finds him in the same dark room, fully dressed in his suit, cape flowing around his shoulders. He beckons Jazzy closer.

“He should be here soon,” Mysterio tells her. “Be careful.” Quentin disappears in a flash of green smoke. “I will help you against him, but I cannot be seen. You know why.”

Jazzy looks around and climbs up onto the ceiling, watching the single entrance. A darkly clad figure crawls through the doorway and onto the wall. He makes his way toward Quentin’s desk. Jazzy slowly crawls toward him as the desk disappears in the smoke.

**‘Let’s sneak up on him, attack him from behind,’** Anguish suggests.

Jazzy nods and trails after the other spider, ignoring the tingling of her spidey sense only informing her that the person in front of her has similar powers. The man turns around, faceless mask staring soullessly at her. Jazzy freezes.

“Dancing Spider,” he greets.

“Who are you?” she replies.

“Kaine. Electro wants you, she sent me to get you.”

“That’s cool,” Jazzy states. “Where’d you come from? How’d you get your powers? How many fucking radioactive spiders are there?”

Kaine huffs out a laugh. “Wouldn’t you like to know.” He raises his arm and a spike extends from his wrist. He bounds toward her. Jazzy flips down onto the floor and finds Mysterio’s smoke wrapping around her like a protective screen. She sees Kaine land on the floor and stalk toward her. He walks around her like she isn’t there.

**‘Mysterio did say he was going to help us.’**

“I know you’re still in here,” Kaine says, pacing. Another bone spike protrudes from his other wrist. “Quit hiding.”

“Why are you listening to her?” Jazzy asks, matching Kaine’s pace and circling him.

“What happened to me is your fault.”

“I’ve never met you.”

Kaine laughs, harsh and bitter. “Stop lying. You left me for dead.”

“I seriously have no idea what you’re talking about.”

**‘He doesn’t feel familiar. Bet Levina’s just fucking with his head.’**

“Yeah, probably,” Jazzy agrees.

Kaine charges toward her, spikes aimed. Jazzy slips to the ground and kicks at his legs. Kaine jumps and rolls. He stands up and thrusts his spike at her face. Dancer leans away from it, the point grazing her cheek. Kaine’s spike lodges in the weak wooden floorboards. Jazzy pushes herself up and grabs her foe in a chokehold. She wrenches him backward, Anguish pinning down his arms.

“I’ve never met you, I couldn’t have left you for dead,” Jazzy hisses in his ear.

“Of course you don’t remember me,” Kaine chokes out. “Take off my mask, and then maybe you’ll understand what you’ve done.” Jazzy tentatively reaches up with her free hand and pulls the faceless mask off, tossing it aside. She lets him go and scrambles backward.

“What the fuck,” Jazzy mutters. Kaine turns to her. His brown eyes bore into hers, the left paler than the right, surrounded by a mosaic of angry white scars. His chocolate hair shaggy and ruffled, framing his scowling face. Despite the heavy scarring, his face is completely recognizable. “What the actual fuck.”

**‘Peter?’**

“You recognize me now?” Kaine asks her.

“There’s no fucking way,” Jazzy mutters. “Peter, what happened to you?”

“My name isn’t Peter.”

**‘Amnesia? I can’t think of anything else.’**

“Why would he be here?” Jazzy asks her symbiote. “Why are you here, why aren’t you in New York?”

“Because Electro brought me here to save me.”

“From what?”

“Your wrath. Your Anguish.”

Jazzy narrows her eyes. “We never hurt you,” she says slowly. “If you aren’t Peter Parker, then we’ve never even met you.”

Kaine rolls his eyes, shoulders slumping back. He sighs before rolling his shoulders forward and running toward Jazzy. She steps to the side but he grabs her arm and twists it behind her back. “Sure you haven’t, Jazzy.”

“Excuse me?” Jazzy responds, turning her head to look at him.

Kaine grins and tears Jazzy’s mask off. She watches it land beside his own. “You can’t hide from us, Jazzy. Electro didn’t need to tell me your name, I already knew from when we first met.” The smoke in the room thickens. Kaine’s right hand comes to rest along Jazzy’s jaw. His grin turns into a scowl as his fingertips begin to burn against Jazzy’s skin. She feels Anguish ripple around the area, hissing and squirming. Jazzy winces.

“What are you doing?” she asks.

“Making it easier to find you.” Kaine rips his hand away from Jazzy’s face, taking bits of her skin with him. Jazzy shouts and grasps at the wound. Kaine drags her toward the door. As they walk through the doorway, the hall turns into a shifting, swirling tunnel. Kaine looks wildly around. “What the hell?” Jazzy feels another hand wrap around her waist, but sees no one there.

“I got you,” she hears Quentin’s voice whisper in her ear. She’s yanked from Kaine’s grip and taken back into the room. The door shuts and Kaine screams. Mysterio materializes.

“Thank you,” Jazzy breathes, hand still covering her wound.

“You could’ve beaten him, if you let yourself.”

“I know,” Jazzy replies, slouching against the wall. “I just…” she sighs. “I wasn’t prepared for his face.”

“He really was Peter Parker, wasn’t he?”

“Definitely looked like it.”

“Why would he try to harm you? Did you do anything to him while you were in New York?”

Jazzy tilts her head back. “No, I helped him several times and even stopped Venom from killing him.” Jazzy hums. “I don’t get what Kaine was saying.”

“Sounded like he wanted to hurt Anguish more than you.”

**‘Told you we should have just let Peter die.’**

“That wasn’t Peter, Guish, that was Kaine, if there’s even a difference.” Jazzy gingerly touches her wound and winces. “Can you heal it?”

**‘No, it’s like a burn.’**

“Shit.”

“Let me help you with that,” Quentin says, removing his helmet. He walks over to his desk and Jazzy follows. She sits down on the edge of the desk and allows Quentin to disinfect and bandage it. “There, remember to change the bandage every couple of hours.”

“Right. Thanks Quentin,” Jazzy says. She leans her head back and looks up at the ceiling. “Why do you think he looks so much like Peter?”

“It could be him, a twin, or a clone. I don’t know why Electro would have his DNA though.”

Jazzy hums in thought. She pulls her phone out and texts Harry, **is peter there? Does he have a twin?**

“What are you doing?”

“Asking Harry about Peter,” Jazzy replies.

Her phone pings. **He doesn’t have a twin or any sibs other than harley and he’s not in the dorms rn why**

**Is he in ny tho?**

**Yeah he is just visiting his aunt may**

**Okay cool thanks har** Jazzy looks up from her phone. “He’s in New York still, doesn’t have a twin or any siblings except for an adopted brother who I met, and that was definitely not him,” Jazzy tells Quentin.

“How do you know you can trust Harry?”

“If it’s about Peter I can trust pretty much anything. They’ve known each other for almost their entire lives, if Pete has a twin then Harry would know.”

“So, the other option is a clone. Any way that Electro would have gotten his DNA?”

Anguish stretches out over Jazzy’s shoulder. **“Yes, we fought Jackal in New York with Spider-Man and he scratched him, not us.”**

“I forgot about that,” Jazzy mutters. “How many clones are there?”


	5. Chapter 5

**‘Hungry,’** Anguish tells her host.

“I know, I’m looking,” Jazzy replies. She looks down at the street as the lights flicker on and the cool air seeps under her suit. Jazzy shivers as it starts to rain. The icy water stings her still raw cheek. “Slow night.”

**‘Would be nice if we could find Kaine.’** Jazzy silently agrees. Her spider sense goes off and Jazzy spins on her toes. She sees a shadowed figure walking toward her. **‘Kaine? Were my hopes answered?’** Her spider sense intensifies as the man grows closer.

He steps out of the shadows and into the dim light of the moon filtered through storm clouds. He wears a blue hoodie with a tilted spider upon it and a red undersuit. His hands come up. “I’m not here to fight,” he tells Jazzy. “I know my brother did.”

“Your brother?”

“Kaine. I’m not him, I promise.”

“Yeah? Show me your face then,” Jazzy snaps. The other spider nods and removes his red mask.

**‘Another one? Didn’t Mysterio say there were only two and one was a girl?’**

“I believe you’re not Kaine, but I know you were sent by Electro,” Jazzy tells the clone. “Guess it’s time to eat.” Jazzy launches herself toward him, pinning him to the roof.

“Hey!” he shouts. “I know I’m a clone, I know that Electro wants to kill you, and I’m here to warn you.”

“I can’t trust that.”

“Look, my brother Kaine and my sister Jessica, they’re both clones but they don’t realize it. Electro told me because I wasn’t following what she wanted me to do, so she used the whole ‘I created you’ argument.”

Jazzy’s grip loosens. **‘Don’t trust him, Jazzy. Two of three clones want to kill you, majority rules.’** Anguish tightens her grip again.

“I know you don’t believe me and I don’t blame you, I don’t have anything. I have Peter’s memories, but I can’t go to anyone, I can’t go to Harry or Em-Jay.”

Jazzy lets go of him. “Fine, say I believe what you’re saying, how are they going to come after me?”

“Together this time,” he tells her, sitting up. “Jessica’s just misguided right now, I don’t think she’ll actually want to kill you, so you can talk her down, but you can’t with Kaine.”

“That right? And what about you?”

“What about me?”

“What’s your name?”

He hangs his head and bites his lip. “I would say Peter, but that makes me feel like an imposter.”

**“You are an imposter,”** Anguish growls, wrapping protectively around Jazzy’s neck. **“And you’re ruining our night.”**

“Anguish, relax,” Jazzy soothes.

“No, hungry, let’s eat him before it gets too cold.”

Jazzy rolls her eyes. “Find me some other night, I can’t do this right now.”

“Have you told Peter?”

“That he has clones? No, I haven’t, I doubt he’d believe me,” Jazzy replies. She stands up and walks to the edge of the roof. Jazzy looks back. “Find someone else to talk to.” She jumps across the street and makes her way closer to Jubilee Plaza.

**‘You let him go.’**

“Yeah, he didn’t try to fight us.”

**‘Jazzy.’**

“Anguish.” Jazzy stops on a streetlamp, shaking uncontrollably. “We need to go home.”

**‘Still hungry.’**

“I know, but I barely have the energy to move in this cold. Can’t thermoregulate, remember?” Jazzy rubs her arms and huffs warm air into her mask.

**‘Okay, Jazzy. We have chocolate right?’**

“Yeah, we should,” Jazzy mutters.

**‘Then let’s go home.’**


	6. Chapter 6

“What’s up, Eddie,” Jazzy greets, entering her mentor’s apartment.

“Link can’t stay here,” Eddie tells her, typing away on his laptop. “Venom’s been more...aggressive and wants to, well, you know.”

Link bounds up to Jazzy and nudges a ball at her feet. Jazzy picks it up and tosses it in the air; Link easily catches it. “I get that, but where am I supposed to keep Link?”

“I don’t know,” Eddie responds. “I could ask around the office, see if anyone is willing to look after him. You’ll probably have to pay them though.”

Jazzy bites her lip. **‘You could ask Mysterio.’**

“Okay, uh, before you ask around let me ask some people I know, just keep taking care of Link until I find another person, alright?”

“Yeah, we can do that,” Eddie states. “Try to be quick about it though.”

Jazzy taps her thigh, sinking down to the floor to pet her dog. “Why is Venom more aggressive?”

“Spider-Man, why else?”

Jazzy nods and stands back up, finding Link’s leash. “I’m gonna take him on a walk.”

“Okay.”

She heads out the apartment building and down the street. Jazzy’s hand slips into her pocket and spins Mysterio’s cube between her fingers. _How does this work again?_

**‘Press the button and he will find us, so not around people,’** Anguish reminds.

“Right.” Jazzy takes a couple of turns until she finds a relatively empty parking lot. She heads to the emptiest floor and pulls the cube out. She turns it a few more times before pressing the button. The cube blinks purple. Jazzy crawls onto a pillar and rests there, Link’s leash held between her knees. She waits for nearly half an hour.

Quentin appears walking toward her dressed in a simple sweater and scarf. He nods at her and Jazzy unsticks herself from the wall. “What do you need?” he asks her.

“Uh, I just have a request, kind of a weird one,” Jazzy says. “Can you look after my dog?”

Quentin raises an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Because pets aren’t allowed in my dorm,” Jazzy replies. “And Eddie was watching after him but now he can’t, so I need to find someone else. If you can’t, that’s fine, I can figure something else out.”

“You’re in college,” he states. “Sure, I’ll watch your dog.”

“Okay, cool, thanks Quentin. I’ll pay for the food, you don’t have to worry about that.” She tilts her head. “I met another clone.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, he looked exactly like Peter, but he knew he was a clone,” Jazzy tells him. “According to him there’s only three of them.”

**“Not like we can trust that,”** Anguish adds, peeking over Jazzy’s shoulder. **“Why is one of his clones a woman though?”**

“Like I know?” Jazzy replies. “But yeah, I thought you should know.”

“And he just told you this?”

“Yeah,” Jazzy says. “He said he wanted to warn me and he’s got nothing to lose.”

Quentin smirks. “We could use that, keep in touch with him. If he truly has nothing to lose then he will tell you whatever he wants. And if he’s a clone of Peter Parker, then he knows things about him that no one else does.”


	7. Chapter 7

“Hey Chey,” Jazzy greets when her friend answers the call. “How are things?”

“Things are...well they’re going,” Chey replies. She sighs. “I keep thinking about Electro.”

“Funny you should bring her up,” Jazzy mumbles.

“Why? She giving you shit?”

“Yeah, sent some people to kidnap and-or kill me,” Jazzy replies. “I was wondering if you could help me find them.”

“Sure, but I need something to go off of.”

“Right, well these people, their, uh, brother, he would probably know, I just need to contact him first, and this other guy I know has a way of communicating with one of them, so maybe you could rewire it or something and use it so that it can find them instead.”

“That sounds like it could work, but I’d have to talk with this other guy.”

“Oh, uh, he might not...like that.” Jazzy crosses her legs. “He’s very private, doesn’t like people all that much. But I’ll see what I can do.”

“Okay, that’s all I ask. And this brother, you can trust him?”

“No, but he’s really the only lead I’ve got,” Jazzy tells her. “I say the three of us meet on Saturday? Jubilee? That’s easiest, right?”

“Yeah, I can do Saturday,” Chey confirms. “What’s the guy’s name?”

“Which guy?”

“Both.”

“My guy is, uh, Beck,” Jazzy replies. “The brother...actually I don’t know his name, he didn’t give me one.”

**‘He said Peter.’**

“No, he said he would go by that but it feels wrong.” Jazzy shakes her head. “Okay, Saturday, probably lunch time, Jubilee’s.”

“Yeah,” Chey confirms. “I might have to bring homework with me. Oh, do these people know about your, uh, spider thing?”

“Yeah, though Beck doesn’t know my name. He probably won’t be joining us anyway.”

“Okay, see you then, I gotta go to class though.”

“Alright, see you Chey.” Jazzy hangs up. “So, time to go find Spider-Man clone number three?”

**‘Yes, how?’** Jazzy shrugs. **‘How would we find Peter?’**

“Wreak havoc,” Jazzy immediately replies. “Time to go eat some heads?”

**‘Isn’t it always?’**

“It’s a date, then.” Anguish wraps a tendril around Jazzy’s waist and purrs. “Let’s go get some early dinner.” Jazzy shrugs on a jacket and heads toward the door. She nearly runs into Gwen when she opens her room door. “Oh my gods, hey.”

“Hi,” Gwen automatically responds, wide eyes shifting into a warm smile. “Where are you going?”

“Oh, uh, just gonna go for a walk,” Jazzy replies. “Maybe get a snack.”

“That sounds like a good idea, but I’m waiting for my dad to call so we can figure out flight plans. We could book you a flight too.”

“No, that’s not necessary, thanks though,” Jazzy says, waving away the suggestion. “I’ll just get Harry to buy my ticket.”

Gwen laughs. “That’s a good idea.”

**‘You should tell her about his name change.’**

“Oh right. Harry’s gonna change his last name to Lyman because his dad sucks ass,” Jazzy tells Gwen. “Well, I don’t know if he changed it already, but yeah, that’s what he told me.”

“Harry Lyman,” Gwen hums. “Okay, I’ll keep that in mind. Have a good walk.”

“I sure hope I’ll have one,” Jazzy responds with a chuckle. “See you later.” Gwen waves and Jazzy heads out the door.

**‘Where we going, doll?’** Anguish wonders. Jazzy’s face heats at the pet name. **‘That nickname okay?’**

“Yeah, it’s totally okay,” Jazzy murmurs. She heads off campus and makes her way away from the more densely packed streets. “Don’t know where we’re going, doesn’t really matter as long as we get some food and cause some chaos, right?”

**‘Right.’**

Jazzy shivers as she heads down a shaded alleyway. Anguish wraps her in her suit and Jazzy climbs up to a roof, sighing in bliss when she reaches the top. The cold breeze whips around her, knocking her hood back. “This view never gets old.”

**‘The cold does, though. It’ll be colder in New York.’**

“I know that, it does get very cold in my hometown.”

**‘Why don’t you go back there? I would like to meet your family.’**

“Don’t know if they’d wanna meet you,” Jazzy responds. “Plus, I don’t know if I can handle that.”

**‘You are moving on if you’re dating two people now.’**

“I know, but going back is different.”

**‘Don’t you want to see your dogs?’**

Jazzy frowns. “Well, you got me there.” She leaps across the street and hears a couple of people shout at her. She grins. “Plus, I can bring Flash to meet them.”

**‘I’m sure he’d love that.’**

“I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic.” Jazzy rolls to a stop.

**‘I don’t know either.’** Jazzy laughs. **‘Can I take over now?’**

“Sure thing, let’s catch a spider.”

**‘You are a spider,’** Anguish states before taking control of Jazzy’s body. **“Now how best to cause some chaos?”** Anguish looks down at the street and finds a group of what looks to be high school students.

‘Don’t hurt the kids unless they try to kill or rape someone, got it?’ Jazzy tells her symbiote.

**“Fine, fine.”** Anguish drops down in front of the group of teenagers. **“Hi,”** she greets them. A couple of them scream as they jump back into the street. Anguish wraps tendrils around them and pulls them back onto the sidewalk as a car passes by, barely missing them. **“Careful.”**

“What are you?” one of them manages, voice shaking. “Are you the Demon?”

**“The Demon? Oh, my father, no that’s not me,”** Anguish says, head tilting back and forth. **“I’m just here to have fun. You can call me Anguish.”**

“Anguish, o-okay, we didn’t do anything though! W-we didn’t--”

“Shut up!”

**“Did you do anything? If you did, well, we’re hungry.”** Her tongue snakes out and licks across her teeth and lips. **“If not, then we just need to get someone’s attention.”**

‘You gotta do more than just intimidate some kids,’ Jazzy tells her symbiote. ‘Crash a car.’

**“Someone could get hurt.”** The group of teens collectively shiver in fear.

‘Yeah, big whoop, so long as they don’t die it doesn’t really matter.’ Anguish raises her arm and elongates it, turning the shape into a shimmering tendril. The symbiote slams down on the nearest car’s hood, flipping it over. Shouts ring out across the street.

“What are you doing?”

**“Wreaking havoc.”** Anguish looks up to the sky to find a news helicopter hovering over them. **“I got someone’s attention, but not who we want.”**

“Who is we?”

**“Wouldn’t you like to know?”** Anguish slams down on another car before pulling the copter closer to the roofs. **“This is fun.”**

‘It totally is,’ Jazzy agrees. ‘Keep going, I can’t see the other spider yet. Switch it up a little.’ Jazzy focuses on the teenagers before them. ‘Take a hostage.’ Anguish sends a thrill through Jazzy’s body.

**“Who looks the tastiest?”** She scans the group before grabbing the least scared looking one. **“I think you do.”** His friends start shouting as Anguish leaps onto the side of a building, holding the kid close. He shouts and squirms in her grip. **“You know, if you keep squirming, you’ll probably fall and then you might die.”**

“You’re going to kill me anyway!”

**“Nope, you’re wrong.”** Anguish climbs up to the roof. **“My goal isn’t to kill you.”**

“Then what are you doing with me?”

**“Holding you hostage to grab someone’s attention, that’s all, don’t freak out.”**

“Kinda hard not to freak out,” he mumbles, looking down at the street. “Who’s attention are you even trying to get?”

**“Well, we don’t know his name.”**

“So, not Dancing Spider?”

**“I always have her attention.”**

‘Yes you do, Jelly Bean,’ Jazzy replies. Anguish purrs.

**“I like that name,”** Anguish tells her.

‘Good, I do too.’

“Who are you talking to?” their hostage asks.

**“My love.”**

“I...what?”

Anguish opens her mouth to respond as a twin web reaches toward them, latching onto the teenager. **“Ah, that’s who we were waiting for.”** Anguish relinquishes her grip as Clone Number Three pulls him away. **“Hey there, Spider, uh, Guy,”** she greets, turning to see the clone hidden in the shadows out of sight from the news copter. The teen hurries through the roof access door and down the stairs.

“Are you really causing a mess just to find me?” he asks. “You could’ve killed someone!”

**“But we didn’t.”**

He sighs in frustration. “I don’t want people to find out about me, leave me alone.”

**“No, we need you to come with us to help find your siblings. Also can you please give us a name? It’s really annoying calling you Clone Number Three.”**

“That’s really what you’re calling me? I told you, I don’t have a name.”

**“Then figure one out. We want you to meet Chey.”**

“Excuse me? Did you not just hear the part where I said I don’t want people to find out about me?” He sighs and runs his hand over his mask. “Look, I can’t help you anymore than I already have.”

**“Yes you can,”** Anguish replies. She makes her way closer to him, hiding in the shadows as well before shifting into Jazzy’s suit. “We need your help finding the other clones so we can hit them first. Either you tell us where they are now, or if you don’t know, you help Chey.”

“You want me to find a name so I can meet her,” he states. “I’m not going in this suit.”

“That’s fine, that will probably attract way too much attention, I’m going to meet her at Jubilee Plaza on Saturday, lunch time, alright? If you want to help, if you’re willing to help like you told us you were, then meet us there.” Jazzy turns around and takes a step toward the edge. She turns back. “And find a name.” Jazzy leaps out of the shadows and hears the people on the street whoop and holler, assuming that she defeated Anguish and rescued the hostage.

**‘You’re not going to tell them otherwise, are you?’**

“No, I am not, they can believe whatever makes them feel better right now.”

**‘Makes it easier to trust you.’**

“Makes it easier to help Quentin reveal the truth.”


	8. Chapter 8

Jazzy walks toward Jubilee Plaza with her hands shoved deep in her coat pockets. She stands away from the door, watching the people hurrying down the sidewalk. There’s movement in the alleyway beside her. Anguish focuses on it.

**‘It’s Clone Number Three.’**

“Oh?” Jazzy mutters. She slips into the alley and finds herself facing Peter’s perfect clone. “Hey, you showed up.”

“Yeah, figured I’d help.” He shifts on his feet, eyes not quite finding Jazzy’s. “I was thinking, for my name, I’d go by Ben.”

“After your uncle,” Jazzy states.

“Peter’s uncle.”

“Technically yours too.” Jazzy leans her head back and watches her breath smoke above her. “Ben’s a good name, it suits you.”

“You think so?”

**‘Chey’s arrived.’**

“Oh, Chey’s here,” Jazzy says. She grabs Ben’s elbow and pulls him onto the sidewalk where she almost immediately finds Chey looking around for her. “Hey,” she calls.   
Chey turns toward her and heads over, waving.

“Hey,” she greets. “This your guy?”

“Yeah, the brother, his name’s Ben,” Jazzy responds. She shivers. “Let’s go inside.” Jazzy leads them into the building and to the food court.

“I don’t have money,” Ben mutters.

“I got you covered, no need to worry,” Jazzy tells him. “I’ll pay for you too, Chey.”

“No, I got money,” she replies. “We’re both starving college students, you don’t need to pay for anything more than you have to. Especially since you don’t have your internship anymore.”

“Yeah, well, I could only stay on for a certain amount of time,” Jazzy says with a shrug. “Gotta give other people opportunities too.”

“I’ll find us a table,” Ben says once they enter the food court. “Get me whatever,” he adds.

“Okay,” Jazzy replies. Her and Chey head to different kiosks to get their food. Jazzy gets a large teriyaki bowl for herself and some of the same for Ben. She sits across from Ben and Chey sits next to her.

“Okay, so, tell me more about these people trying to kill you,” Chey says. “All I know is that they’re your siblings,” she directs at Ben.

“In a way, yeah, we share the same DNA,” Ben responds. He half-heartedly pokes at his food. “I’m the youngest, but it doesn’t feel like it.”

“So, what’s the story between you guys and Electro?” Chey asks.

“She told us that she saved us from Dancing Spider and her Anguish and that we need to bring her to her creator, which is I guess Electro,” Ben explains. “She didn’t save us, she was just manipulating us. Jazzy never...wait, does Chey know?”

“Yeah, no need to keep secrets here,” Jazzy says around a mouthful of chicken and rice.

“Okay, well, Jazzy never hurt us, Jazzy hasn’t even met my sister,” Ben continues. He sighs. “My siblings don’t realize that, but Jessica is just confused.”

“And Levina is taking advantage of that, just like she tried doing with you, though I did actually hurt Kaine out of self-defense,” Jazzy adds, turning to Chey. “Fuck, I wish she would have exited my life after dropping out.”

“Spider luck,” Ben murmurs.

“Spider luck?” Jazzy asks.

“Not what I...I usually call it, but I think it fits.”

“Oh, Jazzy,” Chey says, turning toward her, “did you get the thing you said you were going to get from your guy?”

“Fuck, shit, no, I forgot,” Jazzy replies. “I’m going to see him tomorrow, I’ll get it then.”

“Who’s your guy?” Ben asks.

“His name’s Beck, you’ve never met him.”

**‘That’s not entirely true, Jazzy.’**

“It is, Guish, it is one hundred percent true.”

**‘Oh, I guess it is.’**

“Mhmm,” Jazzy nods. “Anyway, do you know where they are?”

“Kaine and Jessica? No,” Ben replies. “Electro moves constantly, because of you I think. She’s paranoid. You do realize she knows where you are, right?”

“Yeah, she was my roommate, so that makes sense,” Jazzy says. “I don’t know how she knew I was in New York though.”

“She has followers everywhere,” Ben explains. “Literally everywhere, including Oscorp and the Brock Report, even places in New York and in other countries. She probably has some plan to take over the world.”

“That honestly doesn’t surprise me,” Jazzy says. “Her ego is fucking massive.”

“It has to be if you can call yourself a goddess,” Chey adds in. She rests her head in her hands. “I can’t believe I almost fell for her shit.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, you weren’t thinking clearly,” Jazzy tells her. “At least you didn’t try to kill anyone.”


	9. Chapter 9

“For the gods’ sake,” Jazzy exclaims, “why can’t you spiders be less aggressive?” She flips and kicks Jessica’s head back as Kaine plunges his wrist spike into Jazzy’s arm. She shouts and Anguish pushes him away. Jazzy’s spider sense goes haywire as Jessica wraps her torso in organic webbing and Kaine charges forward. He flips over her head.

**‘We’re in quite the pickle,’** Anguish states.

“No shit,” Jazzy replies. She looks at Jessica as the red-suited woman cocks her fist back. “Would Ben want this?” Jessica freezes. Anguish seizes control of Jazzy’s arms, blocking Kaine’s fist and colliding her knuckles with his nose. Kaine stumbles back. He grips at his face as blood begins gushing from the broken bridge, seeping through his dark mask.

**‘Jessica’s suit looks like a red version of Spidey’s Venom suit, right?’** Jazzy glances and takes in the large white spider scrawled over the red expanse, taking over much of Jessica’s chest.

“Yeah,” Jazzy agrees. She grabs Jessica’s web and yanks the other spider toward her. She punches her solar plexus, sending Jessica flying back. “Jackal got Pete’s DNA when he was bonded with him.”

**‘You think they have some of our parent too?’**

“Yup.”

**‘If that’s true, they might be able to track me.’**

Kaine lets out a guttural yell, wrist raised and spike poised. Jazzy shifts on her feet and raises her arms. He stops, chin tilting to the sky. Jazzy’s spider sense blares.

“Oh, what now,” she groans, turning around to find what Kaine is staring at. “You’re shitting me.” Jessica swings over and lands next to her brother on all fours. “Why can’t the fucking Goblin give me a break?”

Kaine huffs out a laugh. “Looks like we’ll get some help taking you down.”

“He’ll try to kill you too,” Jazzy responds.

“He hurt Harry,” Jessica states, “didn’t he?”

“Absolutely.”

“Doesn’t matter, he didn’t hurt us, Dancer did,” Kaine tells his sister.

Jazzy turns around as Jessica looks up at Kaine. She notices the crease appear between her mask’s eyes. “We’re talking about Harry,” Jessica says. Goblin cackles overhead, voice growing closer.

“Look, I get that you’re trying to take me to your leader or whatever, but maybe you guys can help me out with Gobbie first,” Jazzy suggests. “He’s throwing a wrench in all our plans.” She looks to Jessica. “And like you said, he hurt Harry.” She turns back to face Goblin swooping toward them as her spider sense intensifies.

**‘I’ll watch Kaine and Jessica.’**

“Well, would you look at this?” Goblin exclaims, gleeful, as he reaches earshot. “More spiders, it must be my lucky day.”

“Can you not see that I’m already dealing with others right now? You really have no respect for others’ private conversations,” Jazzy says, hands coming to rest on her hips as she tilts her head.

“Not very private if you’re out in public,” Goblin replies.

“He’s got a point,” Kaine mutters behind her. Jazzy rolls her eyes.

“Alright, fine,” Jazzy sighs. “Let’s make this quick then.” Jazzy rolls her shoulders before cracking her knuckles.

“With pleasure,” Goblin agrees.

**‘Can we kill him this time?’**

_No, not when there’s the possibility of swaying Jessica._

**‘Fine,’** Anguish groans.

Goblin throws a bomb and the spiders scatter, Jessica winding up beside Jazzy as half the roof crumbles away. “You say he hurt Harry,” Jessica mutters to Jazzy. “Are you telling the truth?”

“I wouldn’t lie about that,” Jazzy replies. “Harry’s one of my best friends.”

Jessica shifts. “Why’d you bring up Uncle Ben?”

“I…”

**‘I don’t think she knows Ben chose a name.’**

“He taught you what’s right, yeah? I don’t want you to follow me or Electro, follow him,” Jazzy replies.

Jessica looks down. Goblin swoops through the smoke. “He wouldn’t want me to stand by and do nothing while someone like Goblin hurts people like Harry.”

“Then help me, Jessica.”

She nods and stretches her hand out. Webs shoot from her fingertips and wrap over the engine of Goblin’s glider. The glider spins wildly before crashing into the roof. Goblin rolls and stops close to the blown edge. Jazzy’s spider sense goes off again seconds before Kaine’s hand wraps around her neck. She feels the edge of his wrist spike digging into the side of her neck.

“Kaine,” Jessica hisses. He raises his finger and she quiets.

“You will come with us, Jazzy,” Kaine whispers in her ear. “Or I will kill you.”

“Doesn’t Levina want me alive?” Jazzy wonders.

“She just needs your DNA,” Kaine responds.

“Kaine, we need to stop Goblin,” Jessica chimes in. “She can help us with that, then we can bring her back to Electro.”

**‘She’s not being swayed.’**

Goblin stands up and kicks his wrecked glider. His growl rumbles toward them like thunder. Goblin stalks across the roof, peering through the clearing smoke for the spiders.

“Let her go, Kaine,” Jessica pleads.

“No, we owe Electro a debt.”

“You don’t owe Electro shit,” Jazzy spits out. Kaine’s spike digs a little further. It pierces her skin and Jazzy feels her hot blood slowly drip down her neck. “She’s manipulating you, using you. You’re just Peter Parker’s clones.”

Jessica stumbles backward, feet kicking up the loose gravel on the roof. “What?”

Goblin grins and makes his way toward them. “Found you,” he sings.

“What the hell do you mean we’re clones?” Jessica asks again.

“She’s lying, don’t listen to her,” Kaine hisses.

“Your brother, he told me,” Jazzy explains, eyes tracking Goblin getting closer, tossing a pumpkin bomb up and down almost rhythmically. “That’s what Levina told him. Don’t you wonder why you have memories that are almost too close to each other?”

“Oh Dancing Spider, looks like your friend is making my job easier,” Goblin says, crouching down in front of her. “What’s your name?”

“Kaine, do what you please as long as I can bring her body back to Electro.”

“Electro, huh? Maybe I should pay her a visit, talk to her and work with her,” Goblin says, tilting his head. His claws reach up and curl under Jazzy’s mask. Jazzy clenches her jaw and barely tilts her head toward Jessica.

**‘I won’t let you die,’** Anguish mutters in Jazzy’s mind.

_I know, Jelly Bean._

Jessica crouches down, white fingers splaying over the concrete and gravel. She launches herself at Goblin, clinging to his back and wrapping his body in silk. Pulling back on the webs, Jessica forces the Goblin away from Jazzy and slams him down. Goblin’s claws rip away the lower half of her mask. Jazzy grabs Kaine’s arm and flips him over her shoulder. Kaine hits the concrete with a thud and a groan. Goblin strains against Jessica’s webs. Jazzy hops over Kaine and removes Goblin’s belt of pumpkin bombs. She tosses it over her shoulder as Goblin breaks through the webbing. Kaine flips himself over and stays close to the ground.

“Help us!” Jessica shouts at her brother. Kaine’s head swivels between his sister and the Goblin before he turns around and swings away. “Kaine!”

Goblin sits up and Jazzy clocks him in the jaw. “Stay down, Goblin.”

“Why would I listen to you?” Goblin says. He springs upward and grabs Jazzy by the neck. She throws her weight onto it and hears a satisfying crack. Jessica weaves her webs together between her hands before wrapping it around Goblin’s neck. Jazzy finds her way next to Jessica.

“Give me some webs,” she states.

“You can’t make your own?” Jessica responds, but hands her half of the webbing. Anguish reinforces the silk and the three of them pull hard against Goblin. His left arm, unbroken, claws at the silken ropes and symbiotic flesh.

**‘He’s ripping some of it,’** Anguish tells her. **‘Ripping some of me.’**

“Hang in there, Guishy,” Jazzy mutters through gritted teeth. She pulls tighter.

“Are we going to kill him?” Jessica asks. Her grip loosens. “I can’t kill him.”

“I know,” Jazzy replies.

“Of course you can’t,” Goblin gasps. “No one can kill me.”

“Don’t be so sure of yourself,” Jazzy growls, Anguish’s voice underlying her own. “We’re just choosing not to.” She looks at Jessica and they both pull back, hard. Goblin slams back into the concrete. Jazzy stomps on his face, the orange orb-like eyes breaking. She crouches down and checks his pulse. “Faint, but there, help me restrain him.”

“Yeah.” Jessica crouches on the other side of Goblin, rolling him onto his side. Jazzy peers through the broken eyes as Jessica heavily wraps Goblin’s arms together.

**‘His face is familiar.’**

“It is,” Jazzy agrees. She tilts his head and takes in the crow’s feet around his eyes and high, sharp cheekbones. “I can’t see much else.”

**‘Take his mask off.’**

“Right, I can do that,” Jazzy mutters. A short, high shock of electricity pushes Jazzy backward as she reaches for the bottom of his mask. “Holy shit!”

“You okay?” Jessica asks. She stands up.

“Yeah, fine,” Jazzy replies, walking back over and helping Jessica pick Goblin up. They drop to the street below to already find police and firefighters swarming the area.   
“Hey officers,” Jazzy greets. “Brought you guys a gift with my friend, uh…” Jazzy looks over to Jessica.

“Arachne,” she states. “This one needs tight security, the tightest.”

“Also, his mask electrocutes if you try to take it off, high voltage, don’t know if a normal person would be able to handle that,” Jazzy warns. They hand the Goblin to the police officers who shove him less than gracefully into the back of own of the cars.

“Thanks Dancing Spider, took you awhile to get this one, huh?” one of the officers says.

“Oh yeah, so glad that I don’t have to deal with him anymore. Well, see you later.” Jazzy waves and jumps back up to the blown roof. Jessica follows her.

“I can’t let you go,” Jessica tells her. “I still have a duty to Electro.” Jazzy turns around and stares at her. “She saved my life, and my brothers’.”

“That’s not true,” Jazzy says. “Levina is using you, she doesn’t care about what happens to you, she’s just obsessed with herself and with getting me. What I said about you being a clone is true.”

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

“You don’t,” Jazzy responds. “But your brother, uh well, not Kaine, he told me, so don’t trust me, trust him.”

Jessica looks down and shifts on her feet. “I haven’t seen him for a while, can you take me to him?”

“Okay,” Jazzy says. She takes her phone out. “Hey Ben.”

“Jazzy, what’s up?” Ben replies.

“Jessica wants to see you. Where are you?”

There’s silence on Ben’s end. “I’ll meet you behind Jubilee Plaza, out of suit.” Ben hangs up.

“Okay, Jubilee Plaza, but he doesn’t want us wearing the suits,” Jazzy tells Jessica.

“Why were you calling him Ben?” Jessica asks after nodding.

“He chose that name for himself, said he didn’t want to go by Peter because it felt wrong,” Jazzy explains. “I’m sure he’ll tell you more about that when we see him.”


	10. Chapter 10

Jazzy impatiently taps her foot as Jessica changes in the shade of an alleyway. She peers around the corner of the building to Jubilee Plaza just a few blocks down. Jessica comes out and tucks her light black hair nervously behind her ear. Her brown eyes refuse to make contact with Jazzy’s. She has the same birthmark as Peter. Jazzy stares up at her.

“Um, should we go?” Jessica asks, pointing toward the colorful skyscraper.

“Right, yeah,” Jazzy replies. They make their way down the street in silence and head around Jubilee Plaza to the back alley. Ben is already there, sitting atop a dumpster.   
“Hey.”

“Hi,” Ben greets. He looks over at his sister and his eyes soften. “Hey Jess.”

“Hey, where have you been? Electro’s not very happy,” Jessica responds. Ben nods but doesn’t say anything. “You go by Ben now?” He nods again. “Jazzy said we’re clones.”

“We are,” Ben replies. “Electro told me that she created us from Spider-Man’s DNA, Peter Parker’s DNA.”

“Wait, sorry to interrupt you explanation, but does Levina now Spidey’s identity?” Jazzy asks.

“Most likely, I don’t see why she wouldn’t,” Ben says. “But like I said, she knows things because she has people everywhere. That’s how she recruits.”

Jessica slumps against the wall. “But, I don’t...I remember fighting Peter Parker,” she sighs, face scrunching up in confusion. “I remember New York, I know we were raised by Aunt May and Uncle Ben.” She groans. “How could I have fought Peter before we were born...made? Kaine fought him too.”

“Where did you fight him?” Jazzy asks.

“A church, and there were bells ringing and they hurt,” Jessica explains.

Jazzy looks over at Ben to find his eyes wide. “Jessica, that’s not right. I didn’t...Peter didn’t fight anyone in that church other than Venom.”

“How do you know that?” Jazzy asks.

“I have all of his memories. All of them,” Ben tells her. “The only other person in that church was Eddie, right?”

“Yeah, I would’ve gone in, but the bells hurt Anguish.”

“What are you saying?” Jessica wonders.

**‘It’s like you mentioned, Venom was bonded with Peter when we fought Jackal.’**

“You have Venom’s DNA, and so does Kaine I guess,” Jazzy replies. “Well, I mean, probably. Jackal’s the one that got your DNA, probably, which makes sense. He came to fight me, Peter was there, he ended up getting Peter instead of me, but Pete was also bonded to Ven at that time.”

“Then why don’t I have any of Venom’s memories?” Ben asks.

“I don’t know, you guys are the science-y people, I’m just a journalist.”

“God, this is so confusing,” Jessica exclaims. “It’s one thing to have gaps in my memories and to find out they aren’t mine, but a completely different thing to find out that I have memories that belong to two different people. Shit, one of them isn’t even a person.” She pulls at her hair. “Maybe you aren’t right about this, maybe we aren’t clones.”

“There’s only one way to set this straight,” Jazzy says. “I gotta call Peter.”

“Wow, hey, no don’t do that,” Ben hurriedly says. “He will not take this clone thing well.”

“Too bad, he has a right to know,” Jazzy responds. She pulls her phone out of her pocket.

“Hey, hey, let’s think about this, Jazzy,” Ben says, dropping down from the dumpster and holding his arms up. “He might be in the middle of a fight, or a stealth op.”

“If he didn’t turn his phone off during a stealth op then I don’t know what to tell you,” Jazzy states, thumb hovering over her phone screen and the call button. “He really does need to know that he has three clones, though.”

“I agree, but right now might not be the best time, is all I’m saying. We haven’t even fully come to terms with it,” Ben says, gesturing between himself and Jessica. Ben sighs and hangs his head. “We need time, give us time.”

“Okay,” Jazzy relents, turning her phone off and putting the device back in her pocket.

**‘Ask Jessica if she can track us,’** Anguish tells Jazzy. **‘If she really does have Venom’s DNA, she can.’** Jazzy relays her symbiote’s inquiry.

Jessica worries her bottom lip between her teeth. “Yes,” she answers. “And I can sense someone else, Carnage, I think.”

**‘That makes sense, unless we have a sibling we do not know about.’**

“Kaine can too,” Jessica adds.

“What about you, Ben?” Jazzy asks.

“No, I can’t, I don’t have Venom’s memories either except when I,” Ben lets out a long suffering sigh, “Peter was bonded with it. I don’t know why I don’t have his DNA.”

“Maybe Levina ran out of his,” Jazzy suggests with a shrug.

“Why are you helping us?” Jessica asks Jazzy. “Kaine and I, we tried to bring you back to Electro, dead or alive, and yet you’re still helping me.”

“Well, I have the unfortunate blessing of being able to tell when another spider person is dying, so I can’t really kill you,” Jazzy says with a smirk. “And I’m curious, never met a clone before you three.”

**‘And for info to help us and Mysterio change the world and reveal the truth.’** Jazzy nods. **‘Why don’t we try to...enlighten them?’**

“They have Peter’s memories,” Jazzy replies.

**‘Jessica doesn’t have all of them.’**

“Still, Guish.” Jazzy rolls her eyes. Her stomach growls. “You guys wanna get some food? I’ll pay because I’m assuming neither of you have any money.”

“Yes please,” Jessica mutters. Ben shrugs. Jessica straightens up and keeps her eyes trained on the stained pavement. Jazzy nods and heads out of the alleyway and into Jubilee Plaza.


	11. Chapter 11

“Do you have an update regarding Parker’s clones?” Quentin asks as Jazzy sits cross-legged on the floor of his rather nice hideout, Link fast asleep as the pup rests his head on Jazzy’s legs.

“I think I managed to sway Jessica away from Levina,” Jazzy tells him. “Told her and Kaine that they’re clones, then had Ben confirm that to Jessica. Kaine still wants to kill me.” She tilts her head. “Jessica and Kaine also have bits of Venom DNA in them too.”

“Venom? The Demon?”

“Yeah, him.”

“How? And not Ben?”

“Uh, okay so when I was in New York, Peter bonded with Venom and then Jackal ended up getting both of them. Have no idea why Ben doesn’t have Venom’s genetics,” Jazzy explains. “Anguish thinks Jessica might be able to accept the truth, so long as she doesn’t have memories of Peter’s interactions with you.”

Quentin quirks an eyebrow. “Is that so? Try it, but don’t mention that I’m alive.”

“I know.” She looks down at Link and scratches behind his ears still struggling to stand up. “I will have to mention you, to gauge her reaction.”

“I am well aware.”

“Hey Quentin?” Jazzy looks up. He inclines his head. “Thanks for taking care of Link.”

“My pleasure, he’s sweet,” Quentin replies with a smile. “You are too.”

Jazzy blinks. “My name’s Jazzy Joyce.”

“Nice to meet you, Jazzy.” Quentin stands up and sits next to her, patting Jazzy on the back. “What made you decide to tell me your name?”

“It felt right,” Jazzy replies, “and I listen to my gut.”

“I think you have a good gut.”

“I sure fucking hope so,” Jazzy laughs. “If I’m gonna be a journalist it better be.” She tilts her head. “Eddie says my hunches are good too.”

“Well if Eddie Brock says your hunches are good, at least from a journalistic standpoint, you better believe it.”

“Oh, trust me, Beck, I do,” Jazzy responds with a wink. Quentin shakes his head as he laughs. Link’s paws twitch in his sleep.

**‘Someone’s feeling flirty.’**

“Not the right word. Cocky is probably better,” Jazzy tells her symbiote. “Confident, if you don’t want to have a negative connotation.”

**‘You call Flash cocky all the time.’**

“Because he is.” She looks up to Quentin who is watching her with interest. “He’s also confident, in a different way than Quentin.”

**‘Or arrogant, like Eddie.’**

“That works too.”

“What are you two talking about?” Quentin wonders. “What is it even like to have another being living inside your head?”

“She mostly lives in my stomach, actually,” Jazzy immediately responds. “We’re talking about my mood and the meaning of similar words.”

“But what is it like?”

**‘Someone’s curious.’**

“Well,” Jazzy starts, shifting and leaning back on her hands, “Anguish gets me. A bond with a symbiote is like nothing else, because you share emotions, you share   
memories and powers and a body. Really the only downside is how much we have to eat.” Jazzy looks up at the ceiling and smiles. “I really love her.”

Anguish purrs. **‘I love you too, Jazzy.’**

“Oh, there’s also the matter that one of the best foods for symbiotes are brains, preferably human brains,” Jazzy adds, sitting upright again. “I don’t really mind, but that’s something to keep in mind.”

“You never told me that you kill people, Jazzy.”

“Of course I kill people,” she says, rolling her eyes. “It’s pointless if you don’t. They’ll just keep coming back.”

“You didn’t kill Goblin or Wolff.”

“How do you know about Wolff?”

“Like I said, I have eyes and ears everywhere. Now, I don’t fully know why you hate him so much, but I know that you do.”

“Next time I see him, I’ll kill him,” Jazzy states.

“Why didn’t you kill Goblin?”

“Needed Jessica to trust me enough to listen, that’s all.” Link’s eyes open and he stares up at Jazzy before getting up, stretching, and yawning. “Hi Link,” Jazzy coos. He licks her hand. “I gotta go, I have class soon. We can spend more time together after next week, ‘cause then I’ll be on break.”

“Good luck on your finals.”

“Thanks. Bye Quentin, bye Link.”


	12. Chapter 12

Jazzy groans as she jumps into her bed, final final finally finished. Anguish stretches out and covers her eyes with a cool, moist tendril.

“Thanks, Jelly Bean.”

**“You are welcome. Harry’s coming back today.”**

“Oh yeah, he totally is, huh? Is he back yet?”

**“Want me to call him?”**

Jazzy hums. “That would be nice.” She feels Anguish reach into her pocket and pull out her phone. There’s the sound of the call awaiting an answer. “If he doesn’t respond he’s probably in a plane.”

**“I know.”**

“Hello? Hey, Jazzy,” Harry answers. “You done with tests?”

“Yes, finally,” Jazzy groans. “You back in town?”

“I am, you wanna come over here?”

“Absolutely. Should I bring Link? I have to stop by and get him if you want me to.”

“No it’s—” Harry breaks his sentence off with a rattling cough. His coughs grow further away as he presumably sets his phone down. “Ugh, fuck,” Harry rasps out before his coughs continue.

Jazzy sits up, Anguish’s tendril moving to her forehead, pushing her bangs up. “Harry? You okay?” Jazzy asks.

“Swallowed…” he clears his throat, “swallowed wrong, no biggie. But no, you don’t have to bring Link over. I can see him later this week.”

Jazzy bites her lip. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah,” Harry mutters after a moment of hesitation. “Right now, anyway.”

**“What does that mean?”**

“It means I’m okay right now,” Harry replies, eye roll audible. “You can come over whenever. Dad’s still at work.”

“Okay, I’ll be on my way in a sec.”

“Cool, can’t wait. I await your presence.”

Jazzy snorts. “Okay, Har, see you soon.”

“See ya.” Harry ends the call.

**“Those coughs didn’t sound good.”**

“They really didn’t, but if it’s something serious, Harry will tell us,” Jazzy reasons, though doesn't fully believe herself. She groans and swings herself out of bed. “Smooth my bangs down?” Anguish does before retreating back under Jazzy’s skin. “Thanks.”

**‘No problem.’** Jazzy grabs her jacket and slips on a pair of boots. She grabs her keys and heads out the door. **‘You need a helmet?’**

“Yes I do.” She straddles her motorcycle and Anguish wraps around Jazzy’s head. Jazzy starts the engine and speeds toward the Osborn penthouse. _I kinda missed going to this place._

**‘Despite Norman almost killing you?’**

_Yes, despite that._

Jazzy arrives and parks at the building within a few minutes. Anguish sinks down below her neck as Jazzy enters the tower. She taps her foot in the elevator and enters her own handprint into the penthouse lock. Jazzy enters and kicks her shoes off, checking around the corner for any sign of Norman. When she finds none she heads to Harry’s bedroom.

“Oh, Harold,” she sings down the hall. Harry peeks his head out from his bedroom and grins. “Hi.”

“Hey, you got here pretty fast,” Harry greets. He meets her halfway to his bedroom and engulfs her in his gangly arms. Jazzy wraps her arms around him and rests her ear against his chest, listening to his heartbeat.

“You change your name yet?”

“Yeah, but my dad doesn’t know.” Harry snorts. “Don’t tell him.”

“I won’t.”

Harry pulls back and holds Jazzy’s shoulders. “Flash wanted to come with me.”

“I’m sure he did,” Jazzy laughs. “But what’s been going on in New York?”

“Pete keeps having to fight Doc Ock. He’s also been dealing with Wilson Fisk, teaming up with Daredevil.” Harry looks over at the wall. “I worry about him. I worry about you too.”

“I’m okay,” Jazzy reassures.

“Really? Because you’ve got a scar on your face that wasn’t there before and it looks suspiciously like a handprint.”

Jazzy absently rubs at the raised skin. “I got some skin torn off, or I guess burned off. But other than that, I’m fine. Are you?”

Harry smiles. “You don’t have to worry about me.”

“You’re pale.” Jazzy squints. “Paler than usual.” Harry laughs. “Chey almost joined Electro, but I stopped her and now she knows I’m Dancing Spider. Gwen still doesn’t know.”

“Flash and I found a place, bought it, we’re gonna open the disco part first,” Harry says. “We’re still working on a name. So, what do you want to do?”

“I don’t know,” Jazzy states. “I just wanna hang out with you.”

**“Make us hot chocolate, Harry,”** Anguish practically commands. **“We missed your hot chocolate.”**

“I can definitely do that,” Harry says. “Help us wind down from tests and plane rides.” Harry leads the way to the kitchen. Jazzy sits down at the island like she always does as Harry begins making hot cocoa.

“Oh, Anguish and I are...well our relationship is like Eddie and Venom’s,” Jazzy tells her friend.

“Yeah? I honestly didn’t expect anything else,” Harry responds. “Hey, as long as you two treat each other great I don’t have a problem with it. Not exactly sure how that type of relationship would work, but whatever.”

“Nothing really changed, we just don’t hide as much from each other,” Jazzy says with a shrug. “What about you, Har, how has your love life been?”

His shoulders slump. “Oh, yanno, same old same old,” Harry replies. “I want to tell Peter, I really do, but I just...I just can’t bring myself to, to, well, to say anything. And he’s still with Em-Jay, so I don’t want to, wanna ruin that.”

**‘Are you going to tell him about the clones? Maybe he’ll have a better shot with Ben.’**

“Anguish, oh my gods!”

**‘Just saying.’**

“What?” Harry wonders, looking behind him.

“Nothing, nothing,” Jazzy says. “She’s just being Guish, yanno?”

“Not as well as you.”

“Fair.” Jazzy taps her fingers against the granite counter. “Where’s Midna?”

“Em-Jay’s taking care of her. I’m not staying the entire break.”

“I figured, as long as I get to go back to New York with you, I don’t really care.”

Harry chuckles. “That’s good, I mostly wanted to see you,” Harry says. “Felicia too. Gwen and Chey if they’re still here.”

“Gwen went back home, so you can see her when we go to New York,” Jazzy says. “Chey...actually I’m not sure about Chey. I don’t even know where she’s from if I’m being honest.”

“Jazzy,” Harry laughs.

“I don’t know things about people unless they tell me,” she defends.

Harry shakes his head and pours the chocolate into the heated milk. “What’s been happening here?”

“Uh, Levina’s being a bitch,” Jazzy replies. “There was this guy around Halloween with a jack o’lantern for a head, that was weird. Goblin almost ripped my throat out, Carnage has fallen off my radar, but I’m sure Eddie is keeping track of him, and there’s this trio of, uh, other spider people that appeared. One wants to kill me, one is trying to help me, and the other is...honestly it varies.”

Harry turns around with an eyebrow raised. “Three other spider people? Fuck, that’s a lot.”

“Yeah, well, they’re around because of Levina.”

**‘And Peter.’**

“And Venom, if you’re going off of that,” Jazzy mutters. “But how are you feeling, Har? Your cough doesn’t sound any better.”

Harry grimaces and runs his tongue over his spider bites. “I told you, I just swallowed wrong.”

“And I know you well enough to know that you’re lying. Are you sick?”

Harry’s chin tilts downward as he returns his focus to the hot cocoa. “It doesn’t matter,” he mumbles. “It won’t matter by the end of the year.”

Jazzy furrows her eyebrows. **‘What does that mean?’** Anguish wonders. **‘That doesn’t sound good.’**

“Harry?”

“Yeah, I’m sick,” he replies. “That’s why I wanted to come see you and Felicia and Gwen and Chey. And Dad.” He sniffles. “Can you check with Chey to see if she’s still here?”

“Yeah, I can do that,” Jazzy responds. She bites her lip. “How sick are you?”

His shoulders shudder and he sniffles again. “I’d rather not talk about it.” Harry’s voice sounds tight and higher than normal.

**‘He sounds like he’s going to cry.’**

“Okay, we don’t have to talk about it right now,” Jazzy relents, silently agreeing with her symbiote. “Take your time, Harry.”

His shoulders shudder again and he leans heavily against the counter. He drops the wooden spoon covered in melted chocolate and wipes at his eyes. Jazzy stands up, knocking the stool over. She wraps her arm around Harry’s back and feels her heart break. Anguish reaches over the stove top and turns the burner off, searching through the cupboards until she comes back with two mugs. The symbiote picks up the spoon and sets it in the sink before pouring the steaming chocolate into the mugs.

_Thank you, Guish._

**‘You are welcome.’**

Jazzy steers Harry away from the stove as his body is wracked with sobs and sets him down on the couch, Anguish holding the mugs. “Harry, you’re gonna be okay,” Jazzy soothes, but only succeeds in intensifying his tears. Anguish hands them both their own mugs. Harry’s tears fall and mingle with his hot cocoa. Jazzy falls silent and just holds her friend until his sobs subside.

“I’m sorry,” Harry whines, eyes shut and head tilted away from Jazzy. “I should’ve told you sooner, I should’ve told Peter and Em-Jay, Flash and Felicia. I should’ve told my dad so he could find a cure.”

“What are you saying?” Jazzy whispers, Anguish sipping at the cocoa. “Are you...are you dying?” Harry nods. “Shit, Harry. How long?”

“I’ve known since September,” he murmurs. “I don’t think I’ll make it past this year,” his voice cracks and a fresh torrent runs down his cheeks. Jazzy’s own tears well in her eyes. “I’m so scared. Jazzy, I’m so scared.” He faces her, eyes red. “I don’t wanna die.”

**“Maybe we could heal him?”** Anguish suggests. Her white eyes peer into Harry’s. **“Can I try?”** Harry nods. Anguish wraps around his arm and disappears beneath his skin, a tendril connecting Harry and Jazzy. A searing pain flashes through Anguish and into her host. Jazzy almost drops her mug, but manages to stick her fingers to it. Anguish shoots back from Harry and writhes inside Jazzy. **‘No, no no.’**

“What happened?” Harry asks, sitting a little straighter.

“Anguish?” Jazzy asks, looking down at her shaking arms.

**‘Poison in his blood, can’t flush it out, too much, too strong,’** she mutters, frazzled. **‘I’m sorry.’**

“Your blood is poisoned,” Jazzy says slowly, “and it-it’s too much and it hurts.” Jazzy looks down at the small space between their bodies. “I’m sorry, Harry, we really wish we could help.”

“It’s okay,” Harry chokes out and screws his eyes shut again. “Fuck.” He takes a long drink from his mug. “I don’t know what to do.”

“We’ll find a way, we have to,” Jazzy responds.


	13. Chapter 13

Jazzy returns to the Osborn penthouse the next day with Link and Chey in tow. Harry opens the door as they exit the elevator. Chey startles slightly.

“Hey, my dad’s home, so I figured I’d let you in,” Harry tells them. “Since, yanno, he doesn’t know that your handprint is in the system.”

“Your handprint is in the system?” Chey wonders.

“Yeah,” Jazzy replies. “Hey, Harry, how do you feel?” Harry shifts and looks down at the floor.

“Been better,” he states. “C’mon.”

Chey and Jazzy follow Harry into the house. They kick their shoes off and head into the living room. Jazzy sees Norman sitting at his desk, typing away at his laptop. He glances up at them, making eye contact with Jazzy. Her spider sense goes off. Norman sneers. His green eyes turn to Chey.

“Who’s this?” he asks. Harry looks over at Chey.

“Chey, she’s a friend, computer engineering major,” Harry replies. “We’re just gonna go to the other living room and watch something.”

“Alright, keep it quiet, son,” Norman orders and turns back to his laptop. Harry takes them through the kitchen and to the slightly smaller living room.

“Have you told him yet?” Jazzy asks Harry.

“No,” Harry replies. “I haven’t even told Peter. I don’t know how to tell him.”

“Tell him what?” Chey asks, sitting down on the couch and looking around the room with wide eyes. “You have a huge house.”

“Rich people,” Jazzy states. “Do you wanna tell her?”

Harry slumps down on the other side of the couch. He buries his face in his hands. “I can’t do this.” Jazzy sits between them and rubs Harry’s back. “I’m in so much pain.”

Chey stops her observation and turns to look at Harry. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m sick and dying,” Harry mumbles.

Jazzy looks over to see Chey’s eyes widen. She looks at Jazzy. Jazzy nods and sighs. “I don’t know the cause,” Jazzy tells her.

“I do,” Harry says, looking over at them. “It’s probably the fucking goblin serum.” Jazzy goes rigid. “He did say it could kill me. I can’t think of anything else.” He frowns. 

“Well, actually I can, but that’s probably just schiz shit. And I’ve felt like shit since that day.”

“Goblin serum,” Chey slowly states. She rubs the bridge of her nose. “I think I need some air.”

“Balcony’s that way,” Harry says, pointing to his right. Chey nods and gets up.

“She just needs to process everything,” Jazzy mutters.

“I know,” Harry replies. “I’m not mad at her or anything. I wish I’d just die already,” Harry sighs. “Might be easier for everyone.”

Jazzy frowns. “You know it won’t be. And I told you, we’ll figure it out, you aren’t going to die any time soon, Harold.”

“When I went to the doctor in September, he told me that it was very likely that I would die within a couple of months. It’s been longer than that, Jazzy, and yeah, I’m not dead, which is great, but I could die at any moment. There’s no cure for this.”

“There’s no cure for what?” Norman asks, entering the room.

Harry tenses. “Oh, um, I’m sick.”

“I know that.”

“You...what?” Harry stumbles, looking up at his father.

“You are right, that schizophrenia has no cure,” Norman elaborates. Harry lets out a breath and relaxes, visibly slumping. “Unless you are referring to something else? You wouldn’t keep secrets from me, now would you Harry?”

**‘What is wrong with this guy?’**

“I...I’ll let you know if something happens,” Harry responds, focusing on his hands twisting in his lap. Norman raises an eyebrow but doesn’t push the subject. He makes his way through the living room and toward the bedrooms. “I’ll see you at dinner, Dad?”

“As long as you make it on time.” Norman disappears into the rather dark hallway.

Jazzy leans closer to Harry. “You’re not going to tell him?”

“Not...not right now,” Harry mumbles. “I don’t think he’s in a good mood right now.”

“It shouldn’t matter if he’s in a good mood or not, you’re his son and you’re d-die...sick.”

“It shouldn’t, but it does,” Harry says. “You know my dad.”

“Unfortunately.”

Harry chuckles. Chey re-enters the room and sits back down next to Jazzy. “You alright, Chey?”

She laughs bitterly. “You’re asking me? You’re the one that’s dying, Harry. I don’t think it matters how I feel right now.”

“It does, it always does,” Harry replies. “Don’t just worry about me, you have to take care of yourself too.”


	14. Chapter 14

Jazzy, Felicia, and Chey spend Yule with Harry, Chey spending only half the day with them and the rest with her family. Norman barely shows up. Link spends most of the day chewing on a rawhide bone that Jazzy gave him and Harry gives Jazzy a necklace with a glow in the dark kodama. He refuses any gifts.

Jazzy wakes up the next day and nearly runs into Norman as she’s heading back from the bathroom. “Sorry, excuse me,” she mutters, blinking her bleary eyes.

“You should check on Harry,” Norman responds, words sending a shiver down Jazzy’s back.

**‘That’s not ominous at all.’** Jazzy watches Norman head into the bathroom before rushing back to Harry’s room.

“Harry?” Jazzy nearly shouts. She hurries to the bed and jostles his shoulder. Anguish swings Jazzy’s hand up to hover over Harry’s mouth.

**‘He’s not breathing, which isn’t normal, right?’**

“Yeah,” Jazzy breathes. She rolls Harry onto his back and begins compressions.

**‘You might crack his ribs.’**

“Good, that means I’m doing it right,” Jazzy almost snaps. “As long as nothing snaps into his heart or lungs it doesn’t matter.”

**‘Not all CPR breaks ribs…?’**

“Whatever,” Jazzy murmurs. “Focus on his breathing.” She continues pushing down on his chest, only focusing on her hands and the number of compressions. “C’mon Harry, you can’t leave like this, not without seeing Peter again, not without saying goodbye.” She breathes in deep and shakily, biting down on her lip to keep the tears at bay.

**‘Breathing,’** Anguish informs. Jazzy steps back and kneels beside the bed.

“Harry,” she whispers, placing her hand on his cheek. His breaths slowly grow deeper and longer until his chest is visibly rising and falling. She repeats his name over and over until she can’t feel her lips moving any longer.

Harry’s lips move, sound barely escaping them. His eyes move under their lids. “Jazzy,” he murmurs. Jazzy leans forward. “What...my chest hurts.” He opens his eyes a sliver.

“You stopped breathing,” Jazzy tells him. “I may have cracked your ribs.” The tears finally spill out of Jazzy’s eyes. “Shit, Harry, you can’t just die on me like that.”

Tears leak out of Harry’s eyes. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he repeats. “I don’t want to die, don’t let me die, please don’t let me die.” The heel of his hand presses into his forehead. “I can’t go through this,” he sobs.

“Can’t go through what, Harry?” Norman asks from the doorway. “I thought you said you were going to tell me everything.”

“I’m dying, Dad,” Harry says, voice high and reedy. “I just stopped breathing, I keep coughing up blood, everything is spinning.”

Norman walks forward and stops at the foot of his son’s bed. His long, bony fingers grip the wooden board. “You are dying because you are not strong enough.”

Jazzy’s spine straightens and her head spins. Her spider sense slams around inside her head, creating a ringing in her ears. His eyes meet Jazzy’s and everything clicks. “Goblin,” she states. The ghost of the villain’s grin crosses Norman’s face. “That’s why you called him your son then.”

“Aren’t you perceptive, Dancing Spider,” he responds.

**‘You outed yourself, Jazzy. How’d he get out of prison?’**

Harry pulls himself up, struggling. Jazzy sees all the pain and anger and sorrow written across his face. “You did this to me?” he asks his father. “How could you?”

“I needed you to prove your strength to me, as my son.”

“I am no son of yours,” Harry replies, shrinking back from Norman.

“You always will be, through name and blood.”

“Fuck your blood,” Harry spits, “and I changed my name to Lyman.” Norman sneers and grabs Harry’s ankle.

Jazzy springs to her feet and grabs Norman by his neck, Anguish’s claws digging into his skin. “Keep your fucking hands off of him, you’ve done enough already.” She slams him into the wall. Anguish shows her Harry getting out of bed before quickly getting dressed and grabbing Link’s leash. He hooks it up and looks to Jazzy, hand pressed against the wall. “I want to kill you.”

“Then why don’t you do it?”

“I have more important things to do instead of taking out the trash.” Jazzy slams her knee into his groin and drops him, grabbing Harry’s hand and her duffel bag before dragging him toward the door.

“Get me out of here,” Harry mutters. “Far, far away.”

“Okay.” She puts her shoes and coat on and they’re out the door.


	15. Chapter 15

Jazzy drives on her motorcycle non-stop for the next day after stopping by Quentin’s to drop off Link and telling him where she’ll be for the remainder of her break. She calls Felicia and Chey to tell them what happened as well. She falls asleep on her bike, but Anguish keeps them going, holding Harry against Jazzy’s back and on the vehicle. They don’t stop until they’re in New York, despite the growing, gnawing hunger.

“Where are we?” Harry mutters against her back.

“We’re safe, don’t worry.”

“Doesn’t really answer my question.”

Jazzy grabs her phone and calls Peter. “Hey,” she greets.

“Uh, it’s like, two AM, why are you calling me?”

“Where are you right now?” Jazzy responds.

“Stark Tower,” he replies. “Why?”

“Okay, when we get there, let us in,” Jazzy says.

“Who’s we?”

“Harry’s with me.” Jazzy hangs up and continues along the street toward the tallest building in New York. She parks in the alley before helping Harry to his feet and heading to the front door. She pulls at the handle.

“You are not authorized to enter at this time,” Jarvis answers.

“Tell Peter we need to come in,” Jazzy replies.

“You brought me to Peter?” Harry whispers.

“I figured you would want to see him, and if he’s a genius then maybe he can find a cure.” The door opens and Jazzy steps inside with Harry. Peter rushes from the elevator and smiles when he sees Harry.

“Hey guys,” he greets. “Not that I’m not glad to see you, but why are you here?” Jazzy looks to Harry who averts his eyes. Peter’s smile falls. “Harry?” He leans into Harry’s line of sight and Harry closes his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Pete,” he whispers.

“What? Why are you sorry? You don’t need to be sorry, right?” Peter rushes, eyebrows pulling together.

“I’m sick, Pete, and I should’ve told you when I found out but I was so scared,” Harry explains. “I’ve known for months that I’m dying.” Peter stumbles back in shock. He looks at Jazzy and then back at Harry.

“He stopped breathing yesterday,” Jazzy mutters.

“What?”

“It’s my dad’s fault,” Harry says. He looks up at Peter. “He’s the Goblin. He did this to me, Peter, I don’t know what to do.” Harry drapes his arm over Peter’s shoulders and breaks down into his neck. Peter lifts Harry easily into his arms and carries him to the elevator. Jazzy follows, biting at her nails.

“Med-lab, Jarvis,” Peter tells the AI.

“Yes, sir,” the AI replies.

“We’ll figure this out Harry,” Peter assures.

“If we don’t,” Harry says, “I—”

“No, no don’t pull that shit on me, don’t do that, you aren’t dying.”

“I am,” Harry says.

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Peter states. The elevator stops and they file out into a pristine lab with a few beds covered in white sheets. Peter puts Harry down on one of the beds before rolling it closer to a counter with a lot of lab equipment.

Harry coughs, covering his mouth with his hand. “Bucket,” he gasps out. Peter grabs one from under the counter and hands it to Harry. He retches into the bucket, Jazzy smelling the blood.

“Shit, Harry,” Jazzy exclaims, rushing to his side and rubbing his back. “Vomiting blood a normal thing for you?”

“First time—” he retches again, “first time this has happened.” He sets the bucket down and leans back on the bed. There’s blood smeared on the side of the bucket and Harry’s hand. “I can feel myself dying.”

“I’m gonna take your blood, okay?” Peter says, a needle and strong smelling wipe in his now gloved hands. Harry nods. Peter wipes down Harry’s inner elbow and draws blood. He heads back to the counter. “Jarvis, call Em-Jay down.”

“Em-Jay’s here?” Harry mutters, eyes closed and breaths heaving.

“Yeah, she is,” Peter replies.

“Do you want me to call anyone?” Jazzy asks. “Gwen? Flash?”

**‘What about Felicia? Do you think she could get here quick enough?’**

“Debatable, Anguish, we don’t know how much time…” Jazzy trails off, throat shutting off any other words.

“Call Flash,” Harry replies. “Call Gwen in an hour.”

“Why an hour?” Jazzy asks.

“She’ll worry more.”

The door to the med-lab opens and a girl with red hair and a smattering of freckles enters. She sees Harry lying on the bed and gasps, rushing forward. “Harry,” she says with a voice like sweet smoke. She kneels down. “What’s going on?” She looks down into the bucket and grimaces. “You’re sick.”

“Yeah, very,” Harry confirms.

She bites her lip. “You’ve been sick for a while, haven’t you?”

“Yup. I’m sorry, I wanted to tell you guys, I just couldn’t get the words out, Em-Jay.”

“It’s okay, Harry, don’t worry about that now,” Em-Jay tells him. She looks over to Jazzy. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Jazzy replies. “I’m Jazzy.”

“Em-Jay,” she says.

“Jazzy, go get yourself some food, they’ll call if anything...if anything happens. I know you’re hungry. And call Flash,” Harry says to her. “I don’t want you to die with me.”

“He has a point,” Peter chimes in. “There’s a fridge back there.” He points to the back of the room. “There’s probably some cheese.”

Jazzy stares at Harry. “Okay,” she relents. Jazzy goes to the fridge and grabs a few bags of cheese plus a bag of roast beef. Anguish tears them open and devours it all.

**‘Better,’** her symbiote tells her. **‘Still hungry.’**

“I know, but can you wait?” Jazzy asks her.

**‘It would be better to get more food now rather than later, right?’** Jazzy nods. She stands up and leans next to Peter.

“More food? Where’s that?” she asks him.

“Upstairs, just ask Jarvis for the family room.” Peter peers into a microscope. “Shit.”

“What?” Jazzy asks.

“This is really bad,” he states. “Harry’s cells are decaying faster than they’re being made, and the rate that they’re decaying is increasing.”

“How much time does that give him, give us?”

Peter looks back at Harry. “A couple hours at most. Go get food.”

**‘And call Flash.’**

“I know, Guish,” Jazzy replies. She heads to the elevator and up to the family room. She looks around and realizes it’s the same room she interviewed Tony Stark in. She goes to the fridge and raids it, eating as quickly as she can with Anguish feeding beside her. She swallows a cold slice of pizza before calling Flash.

“Hey, Jazzy,” Flash greets, tone cheery.

“Flash,” she sobs. “Flash, oh my gods.”

“Wow, hey, what’s wrong, babe?” he asks, voice immediately sobering.

“You need to get to Stark Tower as quickly as you can, shit, I can’t do anything.”

“Stark Tower? Jazzy, why, you’re not making much sense and you’re worrying me.”

“Harry’s dying and he only has a couple hours left. Peter’s trying to find a cure, but we don’t know if that’s even possible, and it’s been a rough couple of days, because Harry stopped breathing yesterday and we found out that Norman is the Goblin,” Jazzy explains, stumbling over her words and letting the tears she’s been holding in fall. Anguish wraps a soothing tendril around her wrist.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Flash responds. “God, let him be alright.” Flash hangs up and Jazzy hangs her head.

**“You want some?”** Anguish asks, shoving a carton of ice cream in her host’s face. Jazzy stares down at the chocolate ice cream swirled with fudge.

“Hunka-Hulka Burning Fudge?” Jazzy sniffles.

**“Yes, I think. A bit of heat at the end. It’s nice.”**

Jazzy wipes at her eyes. “Yeah, I’ll have some. Let’s bring it back to the lab.” Anguish’s head bobs in agreement. Jazzy gets to her feet and Anguish carries the remaining food she found in the fridge. “Hey, um, any progress Peter?” Jazzy asks when she enters the med-lab. Peter shakes his head forlornly.

“Did you call Flash?” Harry asks from his bed, propping himself up on his elbows. He collapses in another coughing fit. Em-Jay holds up the bucket for him. He retches into it.

“Yeah, I called him,” Jazzy replies. She makes her way to the edge of the bed, watching Peter work while slowly eating her ice cream. He curses frequently and occasionally switches his position to hang on the ceiling. Jazzy and Em-Jay stay rather quiet, helping Harry drink water and handing him his bucket that sloshes with blood.

**‘Flash seems late,’** Anguish points out. **‘Maybe you should check to see if he’s okay.’** Jazzy checks the time and sees that an hour has passed.

“Okay, I need to call Gwen anyway, right Harry?” Harry nods, his eyelids fluttering. She stands up and steps away from her friends. She texts Flash, **everything ok? Jsut ask jarvis to tell peter to let you in if thats why you arent here yet**

Flash almost immediately responds, **sorry dad was being a dickwad im On my way! now** Another message lights up the screen. **Harry still alive?**

**Yeah** Jazzy replies. Then she calls Gwen. The phone rings a couple of times before there’s an answer.

“Hey Jazzy, what’s up?”

“You’re still in New York, right?” Jazzy asks.

“Yeah, totally.”

“Can you come to Stark Tower? Harry wants...needs to see you. Within the next hour.”

“Oh, uh,” Gwen mutters. “I’ll talk to my dad, but I can’t make any promises. I didn’t know you guys were in New York.”

“We got here an hour or so ago,” Jazzy replies. “And we really need you to come over, it’s an emergency.”

“An emergency?”

“Harry’s dying, Gwennie, and we don’t know if he’s gonna make it, so please, come to Stark Tower,” Jazzy pleads.

Gwen takes a deep breath. “Okay, I’ll be there as soon as I can.” She hangs up. Jazzy goes back to Harry’s side.

“They on their way?” Harry asks, breathing heavily labored. “I don’t know if I’ll last much longer.”

“Don’t say that, Harry,” Em-Jay mutters. “Keep fighting, we’ll be right here with you.”

“They’re on their way,” Jazzy replies.

“Good,” Harry says. “It’s so hard to breathe.”

“Then stop talking,” Jazzy responds. “Save your breath.”

Peter suddenly slams his fist against the counter, denting it, before swearing in multiple languages, taking his glasses off, and resting his forehead in his hand. “I don’t know what to do,” he nearly screams.

Em-Jay stands up and stands beside Peter, whispering into his ear and rubbing circles into his back. Peter shakes his head. “You can do this, tiger,” Em-Jay tells him. Harry curls in on himself, wracking, horrible wet coughs from deep in his chest shake him. Blood splatters across the white sheets. Peter hurries to Harry’s side and hovers over him. Em-Jay turns around, shaking hand covering her mouth with tears in her eyes. Jazzy grips the sheets and sees specks of Harry’s blood land on her knuckles.

“Harry,” Peter murmurs repetitiously. Harry ceases his fit, rolling onto his back and looking up into Peter’s face with red-rimmed eyes. “It’s okay, Har.”

“Peter,” Harry states, breaking down into tears. His hand raises up and rests on Peter’s cheek; Peter leans into his touch. He guides Peter’s face closer to his. “Peter…”  
“Harry, I’m sorry,” Peter says through a choked throat.

Harry shakes his head slightly and leans upward. He presses his bloody lips to Peter’s. His head thuds down against the bed. Peter follows him, their foreheads pressed together. “I love you, Pete. I love you so much.”

Tears drip down Peter’s face and onto Harry’s cheeks. He kisses Harry’s lips again, then kisses across his jaw and cheeks. “I love you too,” he cries. “I don’t want to live without you, Harry.”

**‘Goblins, spiders,’** Anguish mutters, ideas swirling into Jazzy’s mind. **‘Oscorp.’**

“Oh!” Jazzy exclaims. Em-Jay—looking rather relaxed for someone that just watched her boyfriend kiss and profess his love for someone else—and Peter look at her.   
“Goblin serum is killing him,” Jazzy states, explaining herself. “Made by Norman Osborn, yeah? So were those spiders, and that amped up your healing, right?”  
Peter straightens up, eyes wide. “Oh. _Oh_.” Peter turns back to Harry. “I need more of your blood.”

“Take whatever you need,” Harry replies, eyes rolling back into his head.

Peter gets the needle and a swab again. “Just stay with me, Har, stay with me.” He draws more of Harry’s blood and rushes back to the counter. He looks at Em-Jay. “I’m sorry,” he says to her.

She waves away his apology. “We’ll talk about it later, just focus on making a cure.” Em-Jay sits back down next to Jazzy.

Peter proceeds to draw his own blood, watching the two mix together. He examines the results as Harry’s breaths become shallow and forced. Jazzy rests her hand on his forehead as Em-Jay takes his hand.

**‘Want me to watch his breathing?’** Jazzy nods. A thin tendril stretches from Jazzy’s wrist and hovers over Harry’s pale lips. **‘I can barely feel anything.’** Em-Jay squeezes his hand.

Peter lets out a whoop of surprise and exhausted relief. “It worked!” He turns around, smile upon his face.

**‘Jazzy, he’s not breathing.’** Jazzy shakes her head, hand traveling down to Harry’s neck, searching for his pulse. She looks at Em-Jay, eyes wild. Everything seems to swirl around her. Em-Jay checks his wrist.

“Oh gods,” she whispers. Peter’s smile fades.

“No, no no no,” Peter mumbles, “Harry, please, no.”

Em-Jay stands up. “Peter, don’t freak out, keep it together for just a bit longer. Your blood can heal him, right? You just need to give it to him, and then he’ll be fine.”   
There’s an edge of hysteria to her voice. She picks up a clear tube with a straight needle attached to one end and curved on the other. “You need to sit down, tiger.” Peter takes Em-Jay’s seat and holds out his arm for her. Em-Jay flicks at his vein.

“Sir, there is a man wanting to enter,” Jarvis’s voice announces. A holographic screen appears over Harry. Flash’s hands are pressed against the front door of the tower, a young girl next to him.

“Let them in,” Peter says absently. “Send them up here.” Em-Jay sticks one of the needles into Peter’s arm, holding the tube up as blood begins to flow through it. She takes the other end and slips it under Harry’s skin.

“Your blood’s red,” Jazzy states, hand still resting on Harry’s neck. Peter looks at her.

“CPR, Jazzy,” he responds.

She blinks. “Right.” Jazzy stands up and starts compressions, eyes closed as she counts and thinks back to the morning before.

“I’ll breathe for him,” Em-Jay tells her, moving around the bed to Harry’s head. “Tell me when.”

“Now,” Jazzy replies after a few more compressions. She stops as Em-Jay holds Harry’s nose and breathes into his mouth. Then she continues, telling Em-Jay when each new breath is needed. The elevator dings and the door opens. Jazzy quickly looks over. She watches Flash’s face turn to pure shock as his hand covers the little girl’s eyes, fingers catching strands of red gold hair. “Eugene,” Jazzy gasps. Peter doesn’t bother looking up, hand gripping Harry’s limp one.

“What’s going on, Eugene?” the little girl asks.

“Not anything you need to see, Jess,” Flash replies. He turns her. “Just go sit on the couch over there, alright?”

She rolls her eyes. “Fine.”

Flash slowly comes closer, eyes glued to Harry’s body. He blinks and he looks between the three of them. There’s a bruise blooming across Flash’s left eye. Jazzy feels hot tears stream down her face. Flash swallows hard before looking back down at Harry. His eyes travel to Harry’s arm and the tube connecting him to Peter; Jazzy’s eyes follow his. “What are you doing, Parker?” Flash wonders.

“Giving my life for him,” Peter replies. Jazzy halts as Em-Jay leans forward to breathe into Harry’s lungs. She stops. “What’s wrong?”

“He’s breathing again,” Em-Jay replies, eyes softening. She smiles, tentatively like she’s afraid to hope. Jazzy reaches to his neck and finds his pulse.

“His heart’s beating,” Jazzy confirms. A wave of joy rushes through her, and she can’t tell if it’s from herself or Anguish or both. Peter sobs and presses his forehead against Harry’s hand. Flash’s shoulders sag in relief.

“Sir, I am not sure if you were planning a party, but there is someone else at the door,” Jarvis announces. The same screen appears but with Gwen outside the building instead of Flash. She’s looking up into the camera, eyebrows drawn in worry.

“Wasn’t planning a party, but we might need one now,” Peter responds. “Let her in.”

“And up here, I presume.”

“Yeah,” Peter breathes, sighing and closing his eyes. The screen fades as Gwen enters the building.

**‘He looks pale.’**

“He’s losing blood, that’s normal, as long as he doesn’t lose too much,” Jazzy tells her symbiote before sitting heavily down on her chair. “Don’t push yourself, Peter.”

“No promises,” he replies with a cheeky grin, head resting on the bed.

“Is he gonna be okay?” Flash asks.

“He’s breathing, and that’s all that matters right now,” Jazzy states. She looks down at her blood speckled knuckles.

The ding of the elevator is quickly followed by Gwen’s hurried footfalls as she runs toward them. “Harry’s dying?” she nearly shouts. “You should’ve led with that, Jazzy.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Jazzy says automatically, hands coming up. “Harry’s...well Peter found a solution we think. It’ll at least work for now, yeah?” She looks at Peter. He sleepily nods his head.

Gwen stops at the end of the bed. She looks over Harry and the blood tube. “You’re sure?” She runs her hands over her face. “This is not how I pictured my break going.” Gwen breathes in deep and looks up at the others in the room. “I’m Gwen, by the way.”

“Flash, that’s my little sister Jessie over there,” he says pointing to the couch.

“Em-Jay,” said girl greets. “Wish we could’ve met in a better situation.”

“Me too,” Gwen replies.

“You have a little sister?” Peter pipes up. “Why didn’t I know this?”

“No clue Parker, you’ve known me since preschool.”

“Peter…” Harry groans. Peter looks up. “Peter.”

Peter squeezes his hand. “I’m right here, Harry,” Peter mutters back. “Right here, neither of us are going anywhere.”

Harry hums, barely opening his eyes. They land on Peter first before moving around the bed. “Flash, Gwen, when did you guys get here?”

“Couple minutes ago,” Gwen replies. Flash nods in her direction. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Tired, everything hurts,” Harry mutters, “but I can breathe and I don’t feel nauseous anymore.” He closes his eyes.

“Harry?” Peter says.

“I’m okay.”

A door opens, but not the one leading to the elevator. Jazzy looks around and finds someone walking toward them. Peter follows her gaze, then puts his head back down on the bed. Jazzy squints. “Tony Stark?” she asks.

“Yeah, what are you all doing here?” Tony Stark replies. He stops by the counter. “Is that Harry Os—”

“Lyman,” they all collectively say.

“Excuse me?”

“I changed my last name to Lyman,” Harry replies, opening one eye and looking at Tony. “Norman can rot in hell.”

Tony turns his attention back to Peter. “Pete, what are you doing?”

“I already told Flash,” he mutters.

“Flash? You mean the kid that bullies you?” Tony wonders. Flash frowns.

“Bullied,” Peter corrects. “He’s better now.”

“I never bullied you,” Flash states.

Peter raises an eyebrow. “We’ll talk about that later. Look, Mr. Stark, you don’t need to worry, I got this handled.”

“There is a bucket of blood under the bed,” Tony states. “Why’s he here?”

“Because Harry was dying and I wasn’t going to let my best friend die, alright?” Peter snaps. “I’d do anything for him.” Harry smiles. Tony walks over and pulls the needle out of Peter’s arm, holding the tube up until all the blood drains into Harry’s arm. “Wow, hey! What are you doing?”

“You’re really pale, Peter,” Tony says. “You should know the symptoms of blood loss.”

“Yeah, and I’m fine. Right, Jazzy?”

“Why are you bringing me into this?” Jazzy asks. Peter points at his head. She blinks a few times. “I don’t understand.”

**‘Spidey sense, Jazzy.’**

“Oh, yeah you’re right. Peter’s fine.”

Tony raises his eyebrow at her. “Were you the one that raided the fridge?”

“Yeah, sorry, I hadn’t eaten for a whole day.” Jazzy rubs the back of her neck.

Tony shrugs. “Kid, you don’t know what your blood could do to him.”

“True, but as long as it keeps him alive, I don’t care,” Peter replies. “Like I said, he’s my best friend and I love him, okay?”

“Then why have you never talked about him?”

“Because you hate his dad and you’d probably judge Harry based on him, and Harry isn’t like his dad at all,” Peter explains. “And before you say anything like, ‘What if Norman is using him to get to you’ well that wouldn’t be true because I’ve known Harry since we were three years-old. Even if I didn’t, would you really just have let him die?”

“No, I wouldn’t have,” Tony relents. He sighs. “You guys can stay, but not the whole break.”

“That’s fair.” Harry props himself on his elbow and looks at Em-Jay. “Hey, sorry for kissing your boyfriend,” he says to her. Em-Jay laughs. “No, serious, I probably should’ve said something to you.” Tony blinks in confusion.

“Right before you did,” Em-Jay says, “I told Pete that he should tell you how he feels. He wouldn’t have if you didn’t kiss him.”

Harry looks to Peter and squeezes his hand. “Yeah?” he says. Peter smiles and looks down at their hands. He nods. “You’re stupid, Pete.”

Flash snorts and shakes his head. “We’ll leave you lovebirds alone,” he states, taking Jazzy’s hand and leading her to the couch where his sister is sitting. Gwen follows.

“So, what happened?” his sister asks, feet swinging off the edge of the couch.

“Not something I want to talk about,” Flash replies. “Jessie, this is Jazzy and Gwen.”

“Jazzy? Like your girlfriend Jazzy?” Jessie teases.

Flash rolls his eyes. “Yeah, my girlfriend Jazzy.”

“Hey Jessie,” Gwen says with a rather forced smile.

“Hi Jessie,” Jazzy greets. “Why’s your brother hurt?”

“Took a hit for me,” Jessie replies, slight smile falling away. Flash stiffens beside her. “Like he always does.”

Jazzy turns to Flash. “You took a hit? From who?” Flash looks away and crosses his arms. “Flash, you can tell me.”

“Our dad,” Jessie replies. “He’s a dick.”

**‘Flash called him a dickwad.’** Jazzy blinks and stares at the siblings.

“Your dad hits you?” Gwen asks. Jessie nods. “That’s not good.”

“We know that,” Flash states. “Jessie, you can’t just tell people about that.”

“Yeah? Why not?”

“Because people might take you away.”

“What’s so bad about that?” Jessie says, pouting and crossing her arms.

Flash sighs and looks at the ceiling. “They might take you away from _me_,” he corrects.

Jazzy leans toward him. “Flash, how often…” she bites her lip and stops herself from finishing the sentence. “Can we heal you?” Jazzy holds her hands out to him, palms up. “That eye doesn’t look too good.” Gwen stares at her from the other side of the couch. She shakes her head and strikes up a conversation with Jessie. “Eugene.” Flash nods and places his hands on Jazzy’s. Anguish crawls over her hands and up Flash’s arms. He closes his eyes and the bruise darkening around his eye fades away.  
Flash sighs and opens his eyes once Anguish returns to Jazzy. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Jazzy replies. She looks back over to where Harry, Peter, and Em-Jay are talking to each other. Tony Stark no longer standing beside them. “You think Harry will be okay?”

“I don’t know,” Flash says honestly. “What happened?”

Gwen looks over at them. “I want to know that too.”

“Remember when the Goblin kidnapped him?” she asks Flash. He nods. “Yeah, so the Goblin forcibly exposed him to goblin serum, which has been slowly killing him.”

“That happened in August,” Flash states. Jazzy nods. “Why didn’t he tell us?”

“He was scared,” Jazzy says, shrugging. “Look, it’s Harry, he didn’t want anyone to worry about him. But that’s not all,” she continues. “The Goblin is Norman.”

“I work for the Goblin,” Gwen says, slowly.

“Yeah, technically.”

“Shit, how’d you find that out?” Flash wonders.

“He said something only the Goblin would know,” Jazzy says, “and he didn’t deny it.”

**‘And now he knows about you,’** Anguish adds. Jazzy bites her lip.

“Like I said, it’s been a rough couple of days,” she mutters, looking down at Flash’s hands still resting in hers. She looks over at Jessie who’s staring up at her with wide blue eyes. “Is it weird for you to see your brother holding hands with me?”

“Not really,” Jessie replies. “He’s had a lot of girlfriends. Dad never liked any of them.”

“Maybe I’ll be different,” Jazzy smirks. Flash shrugs and frowns. “Or...maybe I won’t?”

“Why don’t you tell, like, CPS or something about your dad?” Gwen asks. “Why didn’t Harry?”

“Because Harry knew he would move out soon enough?” Jazzy suggests. “Or he knew that he’d be cut out of the will or something.”

“Harry doesn’t care about money,” Flash states.

“Yeah, but he doesn’t really know how to live without it, right?”

“You got a point.”

“Flash?” Gwen says, returning their attention to her question.

He sighs and runs a hand through his curls. “I didn’t want to be separated from Jessie, and Dad’s not home all that often, he doesn’t get drunk and hit us everyday either.”

“And he says he loves us and he’s sorry,” Jessie adds.

“Which isn’t true,” Flash grumbles. “Even if it feels like it.” Flash huffs, a bitter smirk crossing his face. “He broke my arm once.”

**‘Let’s eat him.’**

“There are other ways to handle this, Guish,” Jazzy mutters.

Flash sighs. “I ain’t gonna talk about this anymore. It’s enough that I saw Harry dead, ‘ight?” Jazzy nods. Peter is sitting next to Harry, holding his hand with a shaky smile. Flash follows her gaze. “You think they figured their shit out?”

“Eugene,” Jessie mockingly scolds. “Mama says not to cuss in front of me.”

“Yeah, fuck that,” Flash replies.

Gwen chuckles and stands from the couch, heading over to the others. “I think they’re done figuring things out,” she states. Flash shrugs and the three of them follow after her. “So, what’s the consensus?”

“Uh, I’m polyamorous,” Peter replies, tilting his head back to look at them. Harry smiles.

“Oh, so you’re dating both Harry and Em-Jay,” Jazzy says. “I feel. You have good taste, Parker.”

“Thanks,” Peter laughs.

“It’s because Harry dyed his hair red, ain’t it?” Flash asks, a smirk twitching at his lips. Peter rolls his eyes in response. Jessie leans over beside the bed and picks up the blood bucket. “Jessie, what are you doing?”

“This is disgusting,” Jessie states, ignoring her brother’s question. “Is this your blood?” she asks Harry. Harry looks over at her and blinks. “Because it’s gross.”

“Jessie,” Em-Jay says, “that bucket could make you really sick, you might want to put it down.” Jessie looks up at her and frowns. “It killed Harry.”

“Oh,” Jessie replies, eyes widening. She sets the bucket down. “Clean it?”

“Eventually,” Harry says, “let us relax right now.”

“Okay,” Jessie says. “Can you make hot cocoa?”

“He’s not--” Flash starts.

“I can do it,” Harry interrupts, pushing himself up on the bed. Peter opens his mouth but Harry puts his hand up. “I know what you’re thinking, just get me up to the kitchen, get me the ingredients and a stool and I can make it. It’ll be good for...for all of us.”

“Okay,” Peter replies. He pecks Harry’s lips before standing up and lifting Harry easily into his arms. Flash gapes.

“Geez, when did you get muscles, Puny Parker?”

“I’ll meet you guys upstairs,” Jazzy says. “I’m gonna clean out the bucket.”

“Okay,” Peter agrees. Flash nods and pulls Jazzy closer, kissing the top of her head, before they all head to the elevator.


	16. Chapter 16

Jazzy groans once she finishes bleaching the bucket, Anguish filtering the toxic fumes. She shoves it where Peter grabbed it from. Jazzy leans against the counter, knees pulled up to her chest.

**‘What’s wrong?’**

“It’s my fault, yanno, that any of this happened,” Jazzy mutters, staring at the blood stained sheets. “And I know no one blames me, they blame the Goblin, which yeah, I do too, but it’s still my fault.”

**‘How can it be? You did everything you could.’**

“But not good enough,” Jazzy whines. “I’m not good enough, I can’t defeat Goblin, I can’t stop Levina, and I don’t fucking know how Goblin got out of police custody. Fuck, I started doing this because I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt because of me, like Jenny.”

**‘He probably killed them, the officers,’** Anguish states. She stretches out in front of Jazzy, shoulders and torso solidifying and hair falling down in waves. **“It isn’t your fault, Jazzy. Harry’s okay, he didn’t die.”**

“He almost did,” Jazzy says, eyes averted from her symbiote. Anguish cups Jazzy’s cheek, her claws resting near her ear. The symbiote tilts her head. “What?”

**“We should kill him.”**

“Yeah, but not without Harry’s okay.”

**“Jazzy.”**

“I want to kill him just as much as you, if not more,” Jazzy replies, “but it’s Harry’s dad, and he’s already lost a lot, alright? I’m not gonna do that to him unless he’s okay with it.”

**“Okay, doll,”** Anguish says with a slight frown. She leans forward and presses her thin lips to Jazzy’s. **‘Stop blaming yourself. You can’t control other peoples’ actions.’**

“Thanks, Guish,” Jazzy mutters. She breathes in deep. “Hot chocolate?”

**“Yes.”**


	17. Chapter 17

The elevator doors part to show Harry sitting at the stove stirring a rather large pot, Peter atop the counter next to him, while Em-Jay, Gwen, Flash, and Jessie are sitting at the counter, empty mugs in front of them as they talk. The large flatscreen is turned on to _Tangled_ with the sound rather low. Jazzy steps out and stares at the screen.

“Flash, did you pick the movie?” Jazzy wonders as Rapunzel screams and points her frying pan at a bush where a bunny hops out.

“Yeah. Course,” he replies. “Figured we’d all need somethin’ a little light-hearted, yanno?”

Jazzy nods and hoists herself onto the counter beside Peter. Her attention flickers between the movie and Harry, pale and tired stirring his hot cocoa. Jazzy frowns and feels the tears well up again. “How are you feeling, Har?”

“Eh,” he replies. Harry snorts. “I’m actually doing pretty good, because of Pete. All my joints hurt though. I feel old.”

“You are the oldest here,” Peter murmurs.

“Nope, Jazzy’s older,” Harry says. “Gwen might be older too.”

“Nope, I graduated a year early and took a semester off,” Gwen tells them. “You’re birthday’s in, uh, January, right Harry?”

“February,” Harry corrects.

“Yup, older than me,” Gwen says with a nod. “Mine’s in March.”

“Okay everyone,” Harry announces, “bring me your mugs, the cocoa’s done.”

Jazzy frowns. “I don’t have a mug.”

“No worries, I got you,” Flash states, handing her one while giving his own to Harry. Harry fills each mug up before they all move to the couches in front of the television. Peter finds himself squished between Em-Jay and Harry, with Gwen on Em-Jay’s other side and Jazzy on Harry’s. Flash sits beside Jazzy with Jessie half on his lap. He slings his arm across Jazzy’s shoulders.

Jazzy stays intently focused on the movie, unable to stop her tears as it continues to play. Harry falls asleep on Peter’s shoulder, snoring softly to remind them all that he’s still alive. Gwen falls asleep too, curled up in the corner of the couch. Em-Jay drapes a blanket over her shoulders. Once the credits begin to roll, intense fatigue washes over Jazzy. She leans against Flash and slowly blinks her eyes. She falls asleep before realizing what’s going on.


	18. Chapter 18

The sound and smell of sizzling bacon awakens Jazzy’s mind. She blinks and looks around, finding her arms wrapped around Jessie and her feet on Harry’s thigh. Gwen is standing by the window, talking quietly on the phone. Em-Jay and Peter are still asleep under Harry’s weight.

**‘Flash is making bacon,’** Anguish tells her. Jazzy carefully untangles herself from his little sister, climbing over the back of the couch. Gwen makes eye contact with her before continuing her conversation. Jazzy hops onto the counter behind Flash.

“Enough bacon for all of us?” she asks him.

He turns around, startled. “Hey,” he says, turning back to the bacon and flipping some over in the pan. “Yeah, as much bacon as there was in the fridge. The Avengers can yell at me later.” They fall into a comfortable silence, Gwen’s hushed voice and Harry’s soft snores carrying across the room. “Hey, uh, Jazzy?” Jazzy hums. “Don’t, uh, don’t tell anyone else this, but I’m probably gonna drop.”

“Drop? Out of college?”

“Yeah,” Flash answers.

“Why?”

“It’s not what I expected, and I don’t like it,” Flash explains. “I’ve been thinking about joining the army.”

“Okay,” Jazzy responds. “If you think that will make you happy, if that’s right for you, then I won’t stop you. Hell, I’ll be right beside you, cheering you on. You’ll always have a cheerleader in your life,” Jazzy laughs.

Flash chuckles. He tilts the bacon onto a plate and turns the burner off. Flash turns around. “I love you.” Jazzy’s eyes widen and her mouth opens slightly. Flash’s mirthful twinkle and soft smile fade away. “Shit, I, uh, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. You can just...ignore that, if you want.”

**‘Isn’t he sweet?’**

Jazzy closes her mouth. “I love you too,” she whispers.

Flash smiles tentatively, taking a couple of steps before kissing Jazzy. “I’m glad,” he states.

“Just glad?” Jazzy teases. Flash rolls his eyes. He squeezes Jazzy’s knee. “I know, I know.”

“You’d seriously be okay with me joining the army?” he asks. “I mean, I’ll be gone for months at a time, you know?”

“I know,” Jazzy replies. “We’re already in a long distance relationship, Eugene, I think it’ll be fine.”

“What? You don’t want to spend more time with me?” Flash says with a smirk.

“I need my space,” Jazzy says. “Well, as much space as I can get while sharing a body.”

**‘But you love me,’** Anguish states. Jazzy nods. **‘Who do you love more?’**

“I can’t choose, Guish,” Jazzy groans. “That’s like trying to choose my favorite dog. Well, out of my own anyway.”

“Kinda wonder what it’s like to have a symbiote,” Flash mutters. “Think Eddie will let me borrow Venom?”

“If you ask nicely,” Jazzy says.

Gwen comes over, sitting next to Jazzy. “Bacon? Can we eat it now?” she asks.

“Jazzy will eat it all before they wake up,” Flash tells her. He smirks. “You could just wake them up.”

“Eh, maybe don’t wake up Peter,” Jazzy says. “He’s like me.”

Gwen grimaces. “Yeah, I’d rather not get punched,” she states. “I probably won’t be able to stay very long today.”

“I probably shouldn’t either,” Flash says. He frowns. “Whatever, my dad can suck it.” His eyes shift over to the couch, landing on his sister hugging Harry’s leg. “I can handle it.”

“You shouldn’t have to,” Jazzy whispers. Flash smiles at her.

**‘I’m hungry, let’s wake everyone up.’**

“Yeah, alright, let’s wake everyone up,” Jazzy responds. “Jessie, Em-Jay, and Harry first so they don’t get punched.” Jazzy hops down from the counter and swipes a strip of bacon before heading to the couch. She shakes Jessie and Harry and they both slowly stir, blinking up at her with matching bleary eyes. “Hey guys, good morning,” she greets. “Flash made bacon and I’m hungry but he said I can’t eat without you guys.”

Harry blinks slowly. “Too many words.”

“Yeah,” Jessie agrees, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

Jazzy shakes Em-Jay’s shoulder. She groans. “What?” she asks, stretching her arms and legs, accidentally kicking Harry in the process.

“Food, breakfast,” she states.

“Oh, now you use few words,” Harry grumbles, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah,” Jazzy replies with a smirk. She smacks the top of Peter’s head. His arm shoots up and grabs hers, yanking down. “Calm down, Peter Parker, I’m not gonna kill you.”

“Fuck if I know,” he replies, eyes still closed. His hand flops back down across this chest. “What do you want?”

“Flash made bacon,” Jazzy explains.

Peter bolts upright, finally opening his eyes. “Oh, why didn’t you just say?” Jazzy shakes her head and chuckles.

“You’re heavy, Peter,” Em-Jay states.

Peter looks over at her and smiles sheepishly. “Sorry, didn’t mean to fall asleep on you.”

“I totally did though,” Harry adds, stretching his arms over his head. “God, I feel so much better. What the hell’s in your blood, Pete?”

“Somehow that isn’t the weirdest thing I’ve heard you say,” Flash states, walking over with Gwen, platter of bacon balanced in his hands.

**‘We can eat now?’**

“Yes, we can,” Jazzy confirms. Anguish thrills inside of her. Jazzy snatches a good portion of the bacon from the plate. Peter half-heartedly kicks her while Jessie makes a surprised noise. “I have been waiting.”

“For like twenty minutes,” Flash states. Jazzy shrugs and sits down on the floor, munching on her handful. Flash and Gwen sit on the floor alongside her and the other four slide onto the laminat. Flash slides the bacon into the center of the imperfect circle.

“Thanks, man,” Harry says before digging in.

Em-Jay frowns. She opens her mouth but is cut off by Flash. “Shit, I found some veggie bacon, I forgot to make it, I’ll do that right now.” He grabs a few pieces of bacon before heading back to the kitchen.

“Thanks, Flash,” Em-Jay says, frown turning upward.

“You better not eat all the bacon,” he says, pointing his finger at them. “Seriously, I made it, I get to eat it.”

“We’ll save you food, don’t worry,” Jazzy says.

**‘We will?’** Anguish asks, nearly causing Jazzy to bite down on her tongue. Jazzy nods. **‘Why? We need more food.’**

“Relax, Jelly Bean,” Jazzy mutters. “We can get more food later.”

“You’re calling her Jelly Bean now?” Harry asks as Peter leans into his side. He blinks and looks over at Gwen. “The voice in your head anyway.”

“You have a voice in your head too?” Gwen asks Jazzy, lips twitching.

“Yeah, she’s my Anguish,” Jazzy responds with a smirk. “And yes, I’m calling her Jelly Bean now.”

“Eddie also has a voice in his head,” Flash adds. “Might be contagious.”

“If you spend enough time with Eddie, it probably is,” Jazzy states. Peter snorts. “As far as I know, Harry’s not contagious...we probably should’ve checked if he was yesterday.”

“Saying that I’ve been sick for a few months, I don’t think I was contagious,” Harry says. He frowns. “I really should’ve told you guys, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Har,” Peter replies, patting Harry’s back. He leans over and pecks Harry’s lips.

“PDA,” Jessie whines, pouting.

“Deal with it, shrimp, Pete’s real fond of PDA,” Flash teases, heading back over with a considerably smaller plate of veggie bacon. He hands it over to Em-Jay and sits down next to Jazzy, draping his arm over her shoulders. “So am I.” Flash kisses the top of Jazzy’s head.

“Gross,” Jessie says, biting into a piece of bacon. “We should get back before Dad.”

Flash frowns. “Yeah.”

**‘Let’s go with, eat his dad.’**

“No, Guish, not doing that.”

**‘Why? What if he’s like Norman? Would be better to kill him now. Plus, still hungry.’** Jazzy frowns. **‘You know I’m right.’**

“We have to know that before we do anything,” Jazzy responds.

“Do you wanna come with us?” Flash asks, the question seeming to be mostly directed at Anguish.

“That’s not a good idea,” Harry says. Flash raises his eyebrows at him. “Your dad will think you snuck out to hang out with her.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Shit,” Flash grumbles. “He’s gonna be pissed anyway, what should I tell him?”

“The truth?” Jazzy suggests. “Tell him Harry was dying, so you wanted to be there for him in case he did actually die.”

“He probably won’t believe that,” Jessie tells her.

Flash sighs and leans his head against Jazzy’s, jaw clenching. “Fucking asshole doesn’t believe anything I say. I’ll tell you guys how it goes.”

**‘We really should eat him.’**

“You’re just hungry,” Jazzy whispers.

**‘Yes, true.’**


End file.
